Coraline beat The Nightmare Before Christmas in both original and lifetime box office. Its lifetime worldwide total stands at about $188.8 million versus about $108.8 million for Nightmare. Both are stop-motion features, meaning animators pose physical puppets frame by frame. Both grew after their first runs through 3D conversions and anniversary reissues.
Table of Contents
- How did Coraline perform originally?
- How did Nightmare perform originally?
- Which reissues moved the needle?
- Where do lifetime totals stand?
How did Coraline perform originally?
Collider reports Coraline opened in February 2009 with about $16.8 million in North America. It finished its original run with about $75 million domestically and $124-125 million worldwide on a $60 million budget, according to the Collider box-office report.
That result made it a clear theatrical success for LAIKA. Domestic means the United States and Canada, while worldwide adds all reported overseas territories.
How did Nightmare perform originally?
Morbidly Beautiful describes The Nightmare Before Christmas as a moderate sleeper hit in 1993. It earned about $50 million domestically in its initial U.S.
run. That start was smaller than Coraline's original domestic total. It also left more room for later reissues to build its lifetime figure.
Which reissues moved the needle?
Coraline's 15th Anniversary remastered 3D and 2D reissue arrived Aug. 15, 2024 from Fathom and LAIKA. Box Office Mojo records $33,626,425 domestically and $52,371,887 worldwide for that release group.
Nightmare followed a slower drip of returns. Wikipedia's film history credits Disney's 2006 Disney Digital 3-D conversion with about $11.1 million, followed by reissues in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2020, 2023, 2024 and 2025. JoBlo records about $4.1 million from the 30th-anniversary 2023 reissue, lifting domestic lifetime to about $82.9 million at that time. The October 2024 annual reissue added about $2.3 million, lifting domestic lifetime to about $89.9 million.
Where do lifetime totals stand?
Box Office Mojo lists Coraline at $116,896,576 domestically and $188,825,198 worldwide including all reissues, according to the Coraline title page. Box Office Mojo lists Nightmare at $94,707,435 domestically and $108,777,663 worldwide across its original and later releases, according to the Nightmare title page.
In practical terms, Coraline leads by about $80 million worldwide. Its single 2024 reissue alone grossed roughly half of Nightmare's entire lifetime worldwide total. Trackers revise lifetime figures as territories report, so compare Box Office Mojo snapshots taken on the same date before quoting a figure.