Puss In Boots: The Last Wish Just Ended One Of The Most Remarkable Box Office Runs Of The Year
Rather remarkably, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" managed to stay in the top 10 on the box office charts for 13 weeks straight. That streak ended this past weekend when the animated sequel finally fell to number 11 on the charts, taking in a damn respectable $840,000 (per Box Office Mojo), given how long it's been in theaters. With that, one of the most roundly impressive box office runs in recent history has come to an end, and it's worth examining how this happened, and maybe more importantly, why it happened.
Universal released DreamWorks' latest way back on December 21, 2022, a week after "Avatar: The Way of Water" began its ridiculous run en route to becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. What is perhaps most amazing, for starters, is "The Last Wish" never actually topped the charts, debuting at number two with a $12.4 million haul. Yet, the film chugged right along week-to-week thanks to very favorable reviews and, rather crucially, an utter lack of family-friendly films in theaters. So the road was left wide open for Puss to do his thing.
To date, the film has earned $184 million domestic and $291 million internationally for a grand total of $475 million worldwide. That's actually more than the original "Puss in Boots" made domestically back in 2011 ($149 million). The key difference with that film is that it made more internationally, to the tune of $405 million, topping out just shy of $556 million. However, it is worth noting that the original had a reported $130 million production budget, whereas Universal was thrifty with the sequel, as it carries a reported $90 million budget. That means "The Last Wish" could, in the end, prove to be just as profitable — if not more profitable — than its predecessor.
No direct competition whatsoever
In a pandemic-era world where movies can come and go at the box office in the blink of an eye, hitting home video mere weeks after they are initially released, what this movie has managed to do is nothing shy of remarkable. It's also worth noting that "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" did actually hit VOD weeks after it debuted in theaters, and was made available on Blu-ray on February 28. Heck, it's even available to stream on Peacock now, which might explain why it finally vacated the top 10 at the box office. All the while, Universal has been watching the ticket sales continue to climb.
The biggest reason this happened is, if we look over the release calendar for the first three months of 2023, it becomes incredibly obvious that nobody decided to get in Universal's way here. There hasn't been a single family-friendly animated movie released in theaters since "The Last Wish" debuted. How did studios like Disney and Warner Bros. let that happen? That's a question for someone well above my paygrade, but Universal benefited greatly, as we can see. This used to be Disney's specialty, particularly when it came to Pixar. Yet, with so many of Pixar's releases going direct to Disney+ over the past few years, Disney may have accidentally lost some of that ground in the process.
Universal is filling a void that needs filling
Even if Disney isn't going to fill that void, there is indeed a void that needs filling. As the pandemic has become less and less of a concern for the general public, moviegoing has started to return to something resembling normalcy. Yes, families can absolutely stay home and watch something like "Turning Red" on Disney+, but if "The Last Wish" proved anything, it's that there is still a huge appetite for these movies in theaters as well. Sure, "Lightyear" may have flopped last year, but that may have been a miscalculation with that franchise on Disney's part, rather than an accurate depiction of what the market will sustain.
Case in point, Universal also did quite well with "Minions: The Rise of Gru" ($939 million worldwide/$80 million budget) and "The Bad Guys" ($250 million worldwide/$80 million budget) last year, as well as "Sing 2" ($408 million worldwide/$85 million budget) in 2021. It also doesn't hurt that the studio has been keeping the budgets very reasonable, whereas "Lightyear" was hurt badly by its reported $200 million price tag. In any event, there is demand from moviegoers for these sorts of films, and Universal, with the help of DreamWorks and Illumination, has been filling that void.
And wouldn't you know it! It's Universal that will be bringing us the next family-friendly animated adventure in theaters with "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" on April 5, hailing from Illumination. They are poised to, once again, eat Disney's lunch and give movie-going families what they crave. But before Mario steals the spotlight, let's tip our hats to "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" for fighting the good fight and winning big.