Coraline makes box office history by crossing $100 million mark in the US

Just seven days into its 2024 theatrical re-release, Coraline has made box office history. This Henry Selick directorial effort took in $1.54 million yesterday August 21. That was enough to propel the feature to $100.5 million domestically across a quartet of North American theatrical releases (one in 2019, one brief run in 2021, another last August). Impressively, $75.2 million of that haul came from its mighty 2009 haul alone. Since returning to theaters for its 15th anniversary, Coraline has now grossed a deeply impressive $17.7 million. What's extra fascinating is that such a run wasn't incredibly frontloaded. This feature's box office prowess did not just come from all the fans running out to see it on its "opening day", August 15, 2024.

Instead, Coraline had four consecutive days of $2.64+ million grosses. Even during the week, it's proven quite sturdy with $1.54+ million grosses on each of the first three days of the week. With such resilient numbers, it's no wonder the 2024 theatrical re-release of Coraline alone has far surpassed the entire box office runs of several notable 2024 box office bombs. As of this writing, Coraline has surpassed the domestic runs of Borderlands, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, MaXXXine, Back to Black, and Lisa Frankenstein, nearly all of which were playing in more theaters than this theatrical re-release. With its theatrical run no longer slated to end today, Coraline's 2024 release will undoubtedly surpass other 2024 newcomers soon.

Where Coraline now really shines in box office numbers, though, is in surpassing the $100+ million mark domestically. That's a common threshold for computer-animated films to exceed. However, the only other stop-motion animated film in history to cross $100 million in North America is Chicken Run from back in 2000. Heck, only seven stop-motion animated titles in history have ever exceeded the $50 million mark theatrically (counting Coraline, three of those seven are Laika titles). Stop-motion animated titles rarely get sent to theaters, and if they do, they're given nowhere near the expansive marketing campaigns of their CG-animated counterparts. Hitting lofty box office heights typical Illumination and Pixar movies achieve on opening can be challenging for stop-motion animated features.

There's even a chance, depending on whether or not it plummets off a cliff starting tomorrow, that Coraline could score an additional $6.2 million domestically and dethrone Chicken Run for the title of biggest stop-motion animated film ever domestically (though that Aardman film still handily holds that record worldwide with a lofty $227.7 million sum). Only time will tell. Meanwhile, the 2024 re-release of Coraline is also officially the biggest Fathom Events title ever, narrowly surpassing The Blind's $17.2 million haul from September 2023. The box office feats of this particular title just do not end.

Expect Coraline theatrical re-releases to become a staple of the August moviegoing landscape for years to come, the same holiday season IMAX reissues of The Polar Express were a big deal for roughly seven years (from 2005 to 2012, when each reissue grossed $500,000+ domestically). And hey, as my fellow Outside Scoop podcast host Scott Mendelson just suggested earlier this week, maybe this flourishing Coraline box office can help get the next Laika new release, Wildwood, some decent domestic distribution. Most importantly, these numbers should tell Hollywood loud and clear that audiences want good stories and characters to connect with. Those elements can inhabit any artform, not just the industries standard computer-animation. If a stop-motion animated film flops at the box office, it's not because stop-motion is an inherently "lesser" medium of storytelling for audiences. Just look at how Coraline's 2024 gross alone has left the lifetime domestic cumes of CG-animated titles like Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken in the dust!