Why ‘Forgotten Island’ flopped at the box office: $13 million opening, on an $80 million budget

“Forgotten Island”, the new animated fantasy-adventure comedy from DreamWorks Animation, by co-directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, opened on 25 September 2026 with just $13 million in the US and $20.6 million worldwide in total (in 35 international territories), against a production budget of $80 million — not counting marketing costs. As TheWrap reports, the result ranks among the five weakest opening weekends in DreamWorks Animation history, even below analysts’ forecasts of $15–17 million.

The comparison with the past still leaves a thread of hope. Crawford’s previous film for DreamWorks, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”, opened with $18 million over a five-day Christmas weekend in 2022 and then reached $186 million in the US and $480 million worldwide; Pixar’s “Elemental” turned a $29.6 million opening into a $154 million domestic gross (5.2 times). Plus, 37 countries still await the premiere, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Meanwhile, according to TheWrap, the film was number 1 in the Philippines — the country where the story is set — with a $1.5 million opening that even beat the premiere of “The Odyssey” there.

Audience data show a film that audiences like, but marketing failed to sell: around 25% of viewers were under 18, 46% between 18 and 34, and 31% over 35; PostTrak recorded a 93% positive score among viewers under 25, while audience scores are almost identical to those of “The Wild Robot”. The problem, according to TheWrap, lies in the campaign: the trailers leaned on references from the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s — such as Simple Minds’ song “Don’t You Forget About Me” — and lost the emotional heart of the film: the friendship of Jo and Raissa and the touching montage with the grandmother, precisely the elements critics and audiences are praising most.

The studio has not lost hope: sources inside Universal told TheWrap they expect strong PVOD revenues for DreamWorks films such as “The Bad Guys 2” and “The Wild Robot”, and the same could happen when “Forgotten Island” arrives on home platforms around the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, the October calendar gives it room: only one other animated film opens that month, Laika’s “Wildwood”, a dark fantasy rated PG-13.

The failure of “Forgotten Island” reflects a wider crisis of original animation: Pixar’s “Elio” reached only $154 million in 2025, Disney’s “Wish” stayed at $255 million worldwide in 2023, “Strange World” crashed with $73 million in 2022, while DreamWorks’ own “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” closed with $43.2 million in 2023. Meanwhile, phenomena like “KPop Demon Hunters” remain the gold standard studios are trying to reach — and prove that audiences still show up, when the offer is right.