The Dumbening

‘KUBO’ FLOPS AT BOX OFFICE, SOARS WITH CRITICS

Kubo and the Two Strings was off to a good start when the reviews began to pour in. The stop motion feature achieved a solid 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, becoming one of the best reviews animated films on the site, and beating out all the other films from the studio so far. It achieved a rating of “universal acclaim” on MetaCritic, and just below a 9/10 IMDB score. People had a lot of good things to say. The box office numbers, however, weren’t as stellar.

‘Kubo’ had the worst opening of any Laika film so far, pulling a little over 12 million over the weekend. It came in fourth place, with DC movie Suicide Squad getting its third week at first place. Seth Rogen’s R-rated animated venture, Sausage Party, made 15 million over the weekend in its second week, hopping two spots ahead of Kubo. 

‘Kubo’ tells the story of a young Japanese boy at odds with his grandfather, the unfeeling Moon King, and trying to learn about his warrior father, Hanzo. The film pushed the studio. Among their efforts included simulating a woman dragging herself in the sand, and building a nearly 20-foot-tall stop motion puppet for just one scene. 

But, Laika’s not exactly in this for the money. None of the studio’s releases have been major animated blockbusters in the way that Disney and Dreamworks have. The studio has yet to win a Best Animated Feature oscar–something that there has been buzz about since Kubo’s release. But, in a summer noted for its underperforming films from all genres and studios, Kubo’s numbers aren’t entirely surprising.

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