‘Puss In Boots: The Last Wish’ Passes $100M At Domestic Box Office After Phenomenal Fourth Weekend

Despite being dropped from 232 theaters in North America, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish increased its box office take over 6%, bringing in a stellar $14.39 million over the three-day weekend, and $19.04 million over the four-day MLK holiday stretch.

Backed by strong word-of-mouth, an intelligent marketing campaign by distributor NBCUniversal, and awards season buzz, Dreamwork’s latest now sits at $112M domestically. Its global total (including domestic) is $253M. The Last Wish is the fourth animated feature to cross the $100 million benchmark in North America since the start of the pandemic. The others are fellow Universal releases Minions: The Rise of Gru ($369.7 million) and Sing 2 ($162.8 million), as well as the Disney-Pixar production Lightyear ($118.3 million).

PIB’s box office performance is even more remarkable considering that it only had a 17-day theatrical exclusive and has been available to rent on premium video on demand since January 6. The film’s availability for home viewing hasn’t deterred audiences from heading to theaters to watch it.

In terms of global success, over the past week Puss in Boots passed Lightyear ($226.4 million) and Universal’s own The Bad Guys ($250.2 million) and now sits as 2022’s 16th highest-grossing feature. It is also a lock to replace Elvis ($287.3 million) in the top 15.

It’s easy to imagine a scenario where PiB continues to flourish and could push even farther up the list. There is little competition on the horizon in the kids and family space, and the major studios currently have no plans to release an animated feature in the first quarter of 2023. In fact, the next major studio animation release is Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie in April. Further, PiB still hasn’t opened in the U.K., which will likely provide another box office boost when it hits theaters there on February 3.