Clayface tops box office as Laika's Wildwood underperforms

The DC thriller Clayface claimed the top spot at the U.S. box office for the weekend, earning $24 million. The film, described as a covert D.C. thriller, debuted ahead of the documentary You Can See Everything and the animated feature Wildwood. With Halloween approaching, the release of the horror-adjacent title aligns with the seasonal trend for scary films.

Wildwood Faces Box Office Challenges

Wildwood, a stop-motion fantasy drama produced by Laika, opened nationwide on October 23. The film is based on a novel by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and represents a project that took the studio approximately a decade to complete. Despite its artistic ambition, Wildwood experienced a significant drop in revenue, described in industry reports as a box office failure. Laika, known for titles such as Coraline, has historically not been a dominant force in mainstream box office returns.

In contrast, the documentary You Can See Everything achieved a notable milestone, becoming the highest-grossing documentary in 15 years after just two weeks of release in the United States. The film secured the second position in the weekend rankings, behind Clayface and ahead of Wildwood.

While Wildwood struggled in wide release, it found success in specific markets. In Portland, the Laika stop-motion feature sold out dozens of showings across independent movie theaters, generating local momentum despite its broader commercial difficulties. The film’s narrative follows a young girl who enters an enchanted forest after a flock of crows takes her little brother, exploring themes of human creativity in the era of artificial intelligence.