Can adult animation sell? Laika’s ‘Wildwood’ will be the latest test

When Laika’s “Wildwood” opens on Oct. 23, it will do something few animated films attempt: arrive in theaters with a PG-13 rating.

The stop-motion fantasy is the studio’s first film rated above PG, and much of the industry is watching to see whether a darker, more mature animated feature can find an audience.

The odds favor the familiar. This year, family audiences turned out for “Toy Story 5,” “Minions and Monsters” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” Six of 2026’s 20 highest-grossing films domestically are animated, according to Box Office Mojo, and all six are rated PG. Only two, Pixar’s “Hoppers” and the Stephen Curry-produced sports comedy “Goat,” are original stories not tied to a franchise.

Laika, the Oscar-nominated studio behind movies like “Coraline” and “ParaNorman,” wants to challenge the assumption that animation has to play to everyone at once.

“It’s an epic fantasy. It has real danger. It’s got like real emotional stakes and consequences,” David Burke, an executive producer on “Wildwood,” said. “Animation is a medium. It’s not an age category.”

Laika didn’t set out to make a PG-13 movie. The film was rated for strong fantasy violence and bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity and language. The studio didn’t change course when the rating came back, Burke said, because the goal was to tell the story as truthfully as possible.

“It doesn’t mean like we’re turning away from families,” Burke said. “It means that we don’t believe that family audiences require filmmakers to remove complexity or darkness or consequence from a story.”

The studio expects a broad audience, including teenagers and young adults who grew up on its films, fantasy-loving adults and families. It has some evidence that those older fans will show up. In 2024, a 15th-anniversary re-release of “Coraline” earned more than $52 million globally over the summer, according to Box Office Mojo. That result convinced the studio that its films “don’t simply age out with their original audience,” Burke said.

“Wildwood” is Laika’s first new film in seven years and has been in the works since 2011. Based on the novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, it follows Prue, a young girl who ventures into an enchanted forest to save her little brother. The entirely hand-crafted stop-motion film runs just over 2 hours and more than a thousand people worked on it. The studio declined to disclose its budget.

The Oregon-based studio was founded in 2005 and is owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. His son, Travis Knight, is the chief executive and directed “Wildwood.” The company also has a Los Angeles-based live-action subsidiary, Laika Live Action. Its five previous animated features earned more than $444 million at the global box office.

The release is unusual for its distributor, too. Fathom Entertainment, formerly Fathom Events, is a joint venture of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark Holdings. It is typically known for distributing re-releases, concert films and live events. “Wildwood” is both the widest release and “highest-profile title” Fathom has ever done, according to Jason Brenek, Fathom’s chief executive.

A scene from “Wildwood.” The animated film, based on the novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, is Laika’s first new film in seven years and has been in the works since 2011.

(Fathom Entertainment)

“It’s unusual. It’s not known IP. It’s not something that people will understand because it’s original,” said Brenek. “It was a visionary, creative leap that they were taking to spend so much time and money in this project.”

PG-13 animation has been discussed in Hollywood for years. Some major studios have developed such projects with written scripts and hired directors, said Strawn Dixon, an agent at the United Talent Agency who specializes in animation. But the biggest challenge, according to Dixon, is “getting those movies greenlit at the big traditional studios around town.”

“Animated movies cost a lot more than live action, and they tend to be much more profitable than live-action movies because of the downstream ancillary revenue streams like toys and merchandise,” Dixon said. “When you rate a movie PG-13 or even R, you run the risk of cutting out some of that revenue… The risk appetite at the big animation studios is a little bit lower these days.”

Laika is independently controlled, so it can take “bigger risks,” Dixon said, and the outcome could reach well beyond one studio.

“If [‘Wildwood’] succeeds, it will open up the door for what’s possible at other animation studios,” Dixon added. “We can continue to make and develop and release these edgier, older-skewing animated films while also playing the hits with franchises and sequels and prequels and spin-offs. Audiences want both things.”

Original animation has had a mixed year. “Toy Story 5” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” each passed $1 billion worldwide. But DreamWorks Animation’s “Forgotten Island,” an original story with strong reviews, opened to $13 million in the U.S. and Canada last month. It has earned just over $60 million worldwide against an $80-million production budget.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak, still sees room for “Wildwood” to connect. He pointed to this year’s surprise hits “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” two low-budget originals that drew big crowds.

“Audiences have been willing to go along for some very unconventional rides when they go to the movie theater,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s not like your typical animated film … I love that they’re not compromising. This year, audiences have shown they like risk-taking.”

“If [‘Wildwood’] succeeds, it will open up the door for what’s possible at other animation studios,” said Strawn Dixon, an agent at the United Talent Agency who specializes in animation. Above, a scene from “Wildwood.”

(Fathom Entertainment)

Opening weekend will matter less for “Wildwood” than for most releases, he said. If audiences and critics embrace it, the film could be in the running for an Oscar nomination.

Matt Kaszanek, director of the Animation Is Film festival, which is giving “Wildwood” a special screening, said the bigger hurdle may be perception.

“There are many people, particularly in the United States, who will automatically pigeonhole anything that’s animated into a certain box,” Kaszanek said. “It’s something that is not exclusively for children, and audiences, adult audiences, are enjoying those films as well.”

For Laika, the bet is that moviegoers will make an exception for something they can’t see anywhere else.

“Audiences aren’t rejecting theatrical,” said Laika’s Burke. “They’re becoming more selective about what earns the trip.”

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