The 15th anniversary re-release ofCoralinehas passed a major milestone at the domestic box office. The 2009 stop-motion animated movie, which was directed by Henry Selick and is based on the Neil Gaiman novella of the same name, was the first feature film produced by Laika, which has since put out releases includingParaNormanandKubo and the Two Strings. When theCoralinemoviecame back to theaters for its latest re-release, it turned out a dazzling performance, outdoing the typical re-release performance with an $8.37 million debut on the Top 5 chart, competing well against major new releases.
PerDeadline, as of Sunday morning, theCoralinere-release is projected to take in a 3-day total of $3.15 million during its third weekend at the domestic box office and a 4-day total of $4.3 million over the Labor Day holiday weekend. This willbring the cumulative domestic total of the re-release to $30.6 million, making it the 34th highest-grossing domestic movie of the year so far. This outgrosses the domestic totals of many major 2024 releases, includingHorizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1,Imaginary,Abigail,Arthur the King,Monkey Man,Cabrini,The Bikeriders,The First Omen, andOrdinary Angels.
How Coraline Compares To Major Contemporary Re-Releases
The 2009 Classic Is Outshining The Competition
The stellar performance of theCoralinere-releasecannot be overstated. While re-releases have always been part of the fabric of the theatrical landscape, they have become increasingly popular in recent years, both as a promotional tool for upcoming releases and as a way to make up for a deficit of new theatrical releases in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood strikes. However, they typically do not perform at this level, and in factmany re-releases dramatically underperform, such as theSaw10th anniversary re-release, which earned the third-worst wide release debut in history at the time.
However, even among the high-performing re-releases that earned more than $10 million during their theatrical runs,Coralineis outstripping the competition. It isthe highest-grossing re-release of the decade, even outperforming the 2022 re-release of the record-shatteringAvatar, which was put back into theaters to promote the impending sequelAvatar: The Way of Water, which then went on to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time. Below, see a breakdown of howCoraline’s current domestic box office total compares to the highest-performing domestic re-releases since 2010:
2024
$30.6 million
2023
$10.2 million
2022
$24.7 million
2013
$45.4 million
2011
$51.6 million
It has been more than 10 years since a re-release has outperformedCoraline, and that was the 30th anniversary re-release of theSteven Spielberg classicJurassic Park, a movie with twice as much built-in nostalgia at the time. It is worth noting that both re-releases also received an added boost from 3D showtimes increasing ticket prices, as didAvatar. Regardless, the performance of the 15-year-old stop-motion title is nearly at the level of the Spielberg classic shows how well this re-release has connected with audiences.
Coraline
Cast
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.
