After 30 Years, The Nightmare Before Christmas Just Passed A Huge Box Office Milestone
More than 30 years after its original release, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" has just passed a significant box office milestone. Disney's beloved classic — one suited for both the Halloween and Christmas seasons — was recently re-released in theaters to celebrate its 30th anniversary. It has done well enough in theaters over the past couple of weeks to push the film over the $100 million mark worldwide. That's pretty remarkable considering how long it took to reach that benchmark.
The 30th-anniversary re-release has, to date, earned $9.8 million domestically, per Box Office Mojo. That includes $889,000 in its most recent weekend. With that, the movie has earned $87.2 million domestically to date to go with $13.8 million internationally for a grand total that now stands at $101 million worldwide. This latest release puts a punctuation mark on what has been a very unique journey, to say the least.
Produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" originally hit theaters in October 1993. It was met with strong reviews in its day but was only a modest hit, taking in $50 million against a $24 million budget. It was also a bit of a sore spot for Selick as most audiences associated the film with Burton, even though it was he, Selick, who was in the director's chair. Be that as it may, the filmmaker's stop-motion animated film ended up gaining a very serious cult following in the years after its original run. It has since become one of the crown jewels of Disney's animated library.
A truly unique box office journey
In no small part thanks to home video and constant showing on cable TV, the audience for the movie grew by orders of magnitude and it has since been re-released in theaters several times. The 3D releases that took place in 2006, 2008, and 2009 were particularly successful, taking in more than $24 million collectively. Passionate audience members have consistently shown up when Disney decides to bring this movie out of the vault and put it back on the big screen. This isn't just the same generation of '90s kids hanging onto the film. New generations have continued to discover and embrace it.
The fact that this movie has made more than half of its box office total after its original run in theaters is at the very least unique and, beyond that, rather extraordinary. From Danny Elfman's enduring score to Blink-182 making Jack and Sally cornerstones of their hit song "I Miss You," the influence of this film has been felt in pop culture for decades now. Undoubtedly, Disney has done very well with the movie, even if it wasn't a big hit out of the gate. The box office alone doesn't even begin to tell the full tale. There are home video sales, TV rights, and untold millions from merchandise to account for. This slow burn has been fruitful, to be certain.
With the recent success, it's hard not to wonder if the brass at Disney are going to consider trying to get a sequel off the ground. Yes, we've had comic book spin-offs and things of that sort, but a true movie sequel would seemingly be a home run for the studio at this point. Lord knows that a 30-year-old movie pulling in nearly $10 million with next to no advertising did not go unnoticed by the bean counters. Come what may, what this movie has accomplished is impressive.