15-Year-Old Oscar-Nominated Movie Passes Major Box Office Milestone As Re-Release Quickly Lands In Top 5 Chart Only4Media.com

Coraline has passed a major box office milestone during its theatrical re-release. The 2009 stop-motion animated movie was directed by Henry Selick and is based on the Neil Gaiman novella of the same name, following a young woman who discovers an alternate universe inside her own home occupied by doppelgängers of her parents who are much more doting and attentive. The movie was well-received, with Coraline reviews earning it a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%. It was also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards.

Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, the 15th anniversary re-release of Coraline is projected to earn a 3-day total of $11.4 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, landing at No. 5 on the chart below contemporary hits including Alien: Romulus at No. 1 and Deadpool & Wolverine at No. 2. Per Collider, this performance pushes its overall cumulative domestic box office total to $81 million, passing the $80 million milestone. This pushes its lead as the highest-grossing domestic movie produced by the studio Laika even further, as the second highest-grossing feature, ParaNorman, only earned $56 million domestically.

Coraline’s Re-Release Performance Is Truly Impressive

Re-Releases Don’t Typically Have This Kind Of Box Office Sway

This re-release adding so much revenue to the original Coraline release is an astounding result. The fact that it is outperforming multiple contemporary titles is quite a feat, as it has landed on the Top 5 chart above such holdover animated hits as Despicable Me 4 (at No. 6) and Inside Out 2 (at No. 8) as well as new live-action releases including Trap (at No. 7) and Borderlands (at No. 9). In fact, it has nearly matched the opening weekend of the movie’s original run in 2009, as it only debuted to a total of $16.8 million originally.

Re-releases have always been a staple of theatrical distribution for various reasons, though they have come back into vogue in the 2020s, first because of production and distribution delays caused by global pandemic-related shutdowns and more recently to make up for delays following the 2023 Hollywood strikes, in which writers and actors took to the picket lines to fight for fair pay. However, Coraline is performing well even by the standards of the recent trend of re-releases, even of movies that considerably outgrossed it in their original runs. Below, see how it compares to some of the best-performing recent re-releases:

While it remains to be seen if this performance will move the needle on the possible Coraline 2, the fact remains that Coraline is still connecting with audiences more than a decade and a half later, to the point that it was able to best the re-release of the record-breaking smash hit Avatar, which occurred shortly before the premiere of its 2022 sequel The Way of Water. The fact that this occurred outside of the Halloween season, during which time a creepy offering like the 2009 title might be even more appealing, makes it all the more impressive.

Source: Deadline & Collider

Coraline

5.0

Based on Neil Gaiman’s novella, Coraline follows Coraline Jones, a lonely young girl who, after moving to a new house with her inattentive parents, discovers a portal to another, more sinister alternate reality behind one of the house’s many doors. Written and directed by Henry Selick, the film uses stop-motion animation and stars Dakota Fanning as Coraline. 

Director

Henry Selick

Release Date

February 5, 2009

Studio(s)

Focus Features

Distributor(s)

Focus Features

Runtime

100 minutes

Budget

$60 million

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