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Tim Briody: Laika's brand of animation is a little weird in the era of CGI, but this is their best opening yet, and stands to have a decent run over the next month as both Coraline and ParaNorman showed decent legs. They're poised for a huge breakout one of these years.

Max Braden: That's less than I expected. I didn't much like Coraline or ParaNorman because they actually got realistically depressing and dark. The Boxtrolls looked to me to be something entertaining for kids, and the right mood for a fall movie. I always feel like these movies should be released closer to Halloween, though, to capitalize on the atmosphere. Maybe if this had been CGI animated instead of stop motion it would have performed better? Or maybe it needed a Tim Burton tag on it. Even then, Corpse Bride opened to $19 million in September of 2005.

Reagen Sulewski: It's a tough sell to make an animated movie that doesn't look "pretty" in the traditional sense, so you're never going to get the highs of Pixar, unless there's some dramatic cultural change around the corner. However, the steady improvement is definitely a good sign that they're up to something good and building a name, something that Aardman animation has struggled with post-Flushed Away. There's a good little business in niche level family films, and this could be carried on indefinitely if they stick to the script.

David Mumpower: I was actually planning on making the Flushed Away comparison before Reagen beat me to the punch. I also believe that the step down in quality from the marvelous Coraline to the mediocre ParaNorman hurt The Boxtrolls. For situations such as this one where the unique style is the selling point, the movie is effectively a sequel. ParaNorman being so forgettable negated the potential interest for The Boxtrolls.

Kim Hollis: While I didn’t like ParaNorman as much as Coraline (and agree it was a bit middling), I think David is misremembering the reception for that Laika film. It’s 87% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes (compared to 90% for Coraline). The IMDb audience score is slightly less than Coraline (7.0 compared to 7.7). But I don’t think ParaNorman really impacted The Boxtrolls in any significant way. I simply think that there’s a limited audience for stop-motion animation – particularly Laika’s brand of stop-motion.

None of their films are really appropriate for younger kids, so you’re already limiting your audience a bit. You can feel pretty comfortable with maybe age nine and up, but then teenagers aren’t really going to be into it. I do think that Laika has a dedicated adult fan base, so they are probably helping some, but the prospect of growth is pretty limited if you’re not adopting the “Appeal to all demographics” approach, which is kind of admirable.

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