The stop-motion film Wildwood finished third on its opening weekend in US and Canadian cinemas with takings of around $11.6 million, roughly double what the studio Laika’s previous film took on its opening weekend in 2019. Laika released it without a major Hollywood studio, and it can afford that independence thanks to the money of one man, the director’s father. That man is Phil Knight. The Nike co-founder and billionaire funds Laika and chairs it.
“I am Travis Knight and I make stop-motion movies,” the film’s director said on 21 October at its US premiere at a Hollywood cinema, and among the similarities with introducing himself at an addicts’ meeting he also mentioned financial ruin and the burden on loved ones.
The father bought the studio in 2003. At the time it had a different name, was struggling financially and his son worked there as an animator. The studio was then named Laika after the dog Laika, who in 1957 flew into space. Laika keeps its distance from Hollywood; it is a quarter of an hour’s drive from Nike’s headquarters. Wildwood took sixteen years to make there, from the moment the director first read the unfinished manuscript of the book it is based on, and according to Bloomberg it cost $100 million.
The most expensive Czech stop-motion film, Myši patří do nebe (Even Mice Belong in Heaven), also took a long time to make: according to producer Vladimír Lhoták, its co-production took perhaps five years to put together. In his view, European co-production is one of the tools for making a demanding film. The 2021 film cost around a hundred million Czech crowns and was co-produced by four European countries. This year, the Czech Audiovisual Fund had a mere CZK 35 million in its first call for animated feature production. The fifteen projects it assessed asked it for more than 104 million. It backed three.
Who is releasing Wildwood in cinemas
Laika’s previous animated films were released in cinemas by major Hollywood studios. In US cinemas, the new film is being released by the distributor Fathom Entertainment. “It’s a strategy built specifically for ‘Wildwood,’ preserving Laika’s independence while aligning with world-class collaborators to support the film’s ambition,” Laika’s head of marketing and operations, David Burke, said in January. Fathom is owned by three cinema chains.
On an industry podcast, Fathom CEO Jason Brenek placed the director and his studio among a new generation of filmmakers who are building their own cult of personality. According to him, these filmmakers handle both marketing and contact with audiences themselves. By October 2026, the film’s trailer had drawn around 90 million views on the studio’s YouTube channel.
The forecast assumed Wildwood would take $10 million on its opening weekend in the US and Canada. The studio’s previous film, Missing Link from 2019, took roughly half of what Wildwood did on its opening weekend.
How the Laika studio manages its finances
According to Bloomberg, Laika’s financial record would be an existential threat for any other studio. Success for Wildwood would vindicate the director’s leadership of the studio, but after another flop, rivals would be left with little hope of making similar films without the generosity of a billionaire family. According to the same piece, even Laika’s first film, Coraline from 2009, only turned a profit after repeated returns to cinemas. “And it’s easy to wonder if Laika could have kept such long-term productions going without the Knight family wealth,” the AP news agency wrote in September.
According to the film website World of Reel, a Laika flop costing more than a hundred million dollars is mere pocket change for the Knights. Laika, which the Knights fund, employs around 400 animators and other staff.
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