Coraline's original 2009 theatrical run grossed $188.1 million worldwide against a $60 million budget, while its remastered 2024 reissue added more than $53 million on top of that. Together the two releases make the stop-motion feature one of the most durable box-office performers in LAIKA's history, even though its first run alone looked like a modest hit at the time. The gap between "modest hit" and "enduring blockbuster" comes down to a 15-year gap between releases and two very different kinds of box-office tracking. Here's what each run actually earned, why the totals don't match perfectly across sources, and what that means for anyone trying to cite a single lifetime figure.
Table of Contents
- What did the original 2009 release earn?
- Why did Coraline return to theaters in 2024?
- How much did the reissue earn?
- Original vs. reissue — how do the numbers compare?
- What should you take away from the combined total?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What did the original 2009 release earn?
Coraline opened in February 2009 and went on to gross $116,896,576 domestically and $71,203,259 internationally, for a worldwide total of $188,110,696, according to Box Office Mojo. Against its $60 million production budget, that put the film comfortably into profit before marketing and distribution costs, and it remains LAIKA's foundational hit — the film that established the studio's stop-motion brand before Paranorman, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link followed. Not every tracker agrees on the exact number.
The Numbers lists a nearly identical domestic figure, $116,472,020, but a notably lower international gross of $50,750,828, for a worldwide total of $167,222,848 — about $21 million below Box Office Mojo's figure. The discrepancy sits almost entirely overseas, likely reflecting differences in which markets and reporting periods each tracker counted. For a reader citing a single "original release" number, it's worth treating $167–188 million as the real range rather than picking one site's figure as definitive.
Why did Coraline return to theaters in 2024?
LAIKA, along with distributors Fathom Entertainment and Trafalgar Releasing, brought a newly remastered 3D version of Coraline back to theaters for its 15th anniversary, opening August 15, 2024 and expanding wide by August 19, per Fathom Entertainment. The re-release wasn't a one-off event screening; it ran as a full theatrical rollout with ongoing weekend tracking, and LAIKA later brought it back again for a Halloween run starting October 31, 2024. The reissue leaned on genuine nostalgia and the format upgrade — many original audiences had only seen the film in standard 3D or 2D, and the remaster gave theaters a reason to sell it as a new theatrical event rather than a revival screening.
How much did the reissue earn?
LAIKA reported the remastered run had already topped $20 million worldwide as of its August 19, 2024 update, including roughly $12.5 million domestically from the opening weekend, according to a LAIKA press release carried by Business Wire. By late August, Comscore weekend data cited by Animation Magazine showed the re-release had reached $18.3 million overseas and $50.4 million cumulatively worldwide — a sharp jump in just over a week of additional theatrical play. LAIKA announced on October 4, 2024 that the summer run had surpassed $53 million in global box office, a total the studio described as the highest lifetime U.S.
gross of any stop-motion animated feature, as reported via Celluloid Junkie. Box Office Mojo's own release-group page for the 15th Anniversary run tracks it separately from the original 2009 release and lists $33,626,425 in U.S. domestic gross plus $707,746 from Canada for that specific run, per Box Office Mojo. Fathom Entertainment has since called the 2024 Coraline reissue the highest-grossing release of any kind — new film or re-release — in the company's roughly 20-year operating history, according to Fathom.
Original vs. reissue — how do the numbers compare?
Lined up side by side, the two runs look like this: SlashFilm's analysis frames the contrast directly: the original run made roughly $124.5 million worldwide in the figure it cites, while the 2024 reissue alone cleared $50 million — meaning the reissue by itself earned somewhere between a quarter and a third of what the entire original theatrical run made, compressed into a few months rather than a full initial release cycle. That reframes Coraline's commercial story: a film that looked like a solid-but-unspectacular hit in 2009 has, with the reissue folded in, outperformed most of LAIKA's subsequent features at the box office.
- **2009 original (domestic):** $116,896,576 (Box Office Mojo) or $116,472,020 (The Numbers)
- **2009 original (international):** $71,203,259 (Box Office Mojo) or $50,750,828 (The Numbers)
- **2009 original (worldwide):** $188,110,696 (Box Office Mojo) or $167,222,848 (The Numbers)
- **2024 15th Anniversary reissue (worldwide):** over $53 million as of October 2024, per LAIKA
- **2024 reissue (U.S. + Canada, Box Office Mojo release page):** $33,626,425 domestic plus $707,746 Canada
What should you take away from the combined total?
Anyone citing a single "lifetime gross" for Coraline should present it as a range, not one precise number, because the inputs themselves don't agree. The original run alone spans roughly $167 million to $188 million worldwide depending on whether you use The Numbers or Box Office Mojo, and the reissue's figures come from studio and distributor press releases — LAIKA, Fathom — rather than fully audited third-party accounting.
Adding the two together without flagging that gives a false sense of precision. A reasonable combined estimate, based on the original Box Office Mojo total plus LAIKA's own October 2024 reissue figure, lands around $241 million worldwide lifetime; using The Numbers' lower original figure instead puts it closer to $220 million. Either way, the reissue did far more than pad a legacy number — it gave Coraline a second commercial life that, on its own, outgrossed most wide theatrical re-releases of any animated film in recent memory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the 2024 Coraline reissue outearn the original theatrical release?
No. The reissue's $53 million-plus worldwide total is substantial but still well short of the original run's $167–188 million worldwide gross.
Which source should I trust for Coraline's original box office numbers?
Box Office Mojo and The Numbers disagree mainly on the international figure; treat $167 million to $188 million worldwide as the honest range rather than citing one exact total.
Is Coraline's 2024 re-release total audited the same way as its original run?
No. The reissue figures come from LAIKA and Fathom Entertainment press releases and Comscore weekend data, not the same long-term tracking used for the original release.