DreamWorks Animation’s “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” has bounced back from a soft opening to become a major smash hit.
The first “Puss in Boots” was released in 2011, scoring good reviews and debuting to a $34.1 million opening weekend ahead of a $555 million worldwide gross (149m domestic/406m overseas).
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” hit late December, opening up next to juggernaut “Avatar: The Way of Water”. Reviews were stellar, the film becoming one of the most critically acclaimed animated films since “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”.
The audience however was soft at opening with the film, projected to open at over $30 million the week before, ended up debuting to just $12.4 million over the three-day Christmas weekend. It looks like the cat was done.
Then a funny thing happened – like “Avatar: The Way of Water” the film has lingered in the Top 5 box-office for the past eight weekends and is still in third place this weekend. Whereas other films have opened and fallen off, ‘Puss’ has lingered with even the film’s PVOD release having no impact on its numbers.
The result is the film now stands at over $401 million globally, especially impressive considering animated family films aren’t as sure a bet as they were pre-pandemic. Speaking to The Playlist this past week, the film’s director Joel Crawford (“The Croods: A New Age”) says he was initially disappointed with the box office results:
“We were all so proud of the film, and even getting the critic’s reaction to that point was all positive. And so you are just like, one, is there an audience to see it? And then two, is the studio going to make more things like this because it’s a business? It has to deliver on that front.
So with that low [opening box-office], it just became even more awesome when the movie just kind of, and no pun intended here, clawed its way back to the top. That’s the best way I could describe it, where it’s just the audiences found the movie and we kept hearing not only were like 20-year olds, 30-year-olds, teenagers, all going to the movie, but they’re repeatedly watching it.”
With the response riding so high, what will happen to Puss (Antonio Banderas), Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) and newcomer Perrito (Harvey Guillen) next? Will it be another decade to wait for the next film?
“I don’t know what’s going on with anything after this, but it was all this hopeful thing of we love these characters. We believe in this story that we’re telling and we hope that audiences will engage with it and demand more stories, both with the Puss and Boots side and also with Shrek. I feel like I can say based on the world’s reception of it, that it does feel like they’ve said ‘Yes, we want more,’ which I’m so happy about. But honestly, I hope to keep getting to tell stories with all of these characters.”
Crawford adds that while he doesn’t know what he’s doing next, he would like “to continue telling stories of these characters we’ve established”. There are also some original projects he’s working on developing.
