‘Migration,’ ‘The Boy And The Heron,’ ‘Wish,’ And ‘Trolls’ All Hit Major Box Office Milestones Last Weekend

Four animated features hit significant domestic and worldwide box office milestones over the past weekend.

However, major questions remain about the state of the post-Covid box office run and how to define success for original (non-sequel, non-IP) animated features.

Here’s our breakdown of the weekend’s box office numbers.

Migration

Milestones: $150 million grossed globally; 10th highest worldwide gross for an animated film released in 2023.

Benjamin Renner’s Migration pulled in an impressive $10.2 million over its third weekend in U.S. cinemas, good for fourth place at the domestic box office. Its North American total now sits at $77.8 million, and the movie looks likely to fly past the $100 million mark in the coming weeks.

Globally, the Illumination-produced film finished in third place over the weekend, grossing $15.5 million from 73 offshore territories for a global total of $25.7 million. Migration’s worldwide cume now sits at $150.7 million, with several major territories yet to debut the film, such as the U.K., Japan, and Korea. It’s now 2023’s tenth highest-grossing animated feature release worldwide.

While the numbers behind Migration look decent in isolation, they are low for an Illumination feature. The film will certainly surpass the studio’s lowest-grossing film, Hop, which grossed $188.5 million in 2011. However, the studio’s next lowest is Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, which made $351.1 million in 2012. That seems an insurmountable figure for Migration.

The Boy and the Heron

Milestones: $39.6 million grossed in North America; fourth highest gross for an anime title in North American box office history.

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron grossed $1.7 million in North America over the weekend, bringing its total to $39.6 million in the territory. That makes The Boy and the Heron the fourth highest-grossing anime title in U.S. box office history. The Ghibli-produced film capped off the weekend by winning the animated feature Golden Globe, the first time a non-U.S. film earned that distinction.

Wish

Milestones: $200 million grossed worldwide; sixth highest worldwide gross for an animated film released in 2023.

In contrast to its uninspiring $760,000 domestic weekend, Chris Buck’s Wish continued to perform well abroad and grossed $19 million from 51 territories. The film’s worldwide box office now sits at $209.5 million, making it the sixth highest-grossing animated feature released in 2023. Wish has a very realistic chance of passing China’s Boonie Bears: Guardian Code ($222 million) for fifth place and Chang’an ($241.3 million) for fourth before all is said and done.

Trolls Band Together

Milestones: $200 million grossed worldwide; seventh highest worldwide gross for an animated film released in 2023.

Walt Dohrn’s Trolls Band Together added $1.2 million to its domestic haul over the weekend, bringing the film’s total to an even $100 million after 8 weeks in cinemas. That’s almost identical to the film’s international total, giving the film a worldwide cume of $201 million. It’s now the seventh highest-grossing animated release of 2023.

Beyond the Numbers

While many of the milestones broken over the past weekend are noteworthy, they still fall well short of where the box office was trending before the pandemic. It’s hard not to imagine that these, and many other big U.S. animated films, would have made much more money in a pre-Covid world.

It’s also becoming increasingly clear that original IPs can’t keep up with their franchise counterparts and that definitions of success need to be readjusted. Films like Migration and Elemental are successes when measured against their inauspicious debuts, but will studios like Disney and Illumination be content with their films breaking even? Or does it make more sense for them to pump out sequel after sequel for their big-money franchises?