‘Forgotten Island’ Bombs With $13M Opening, $80M Budget, Despite Great Reviews

DreamWorks' "Forgotten Island" currently holds a stellar 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. That puts it among the studio's best-reviewed animated releases, and it's hard to imagine it missing a Best Animated Feature nomination if it weren’t for it bombing at the box office this weekend.

The casting is unique. “Forgotten Island” boasts one of the deepest benches of Filipino talent ever assembled for a major Hollywood feature. Lea Salonga, Broadway's "Miss Saigon" star and the singing voice of both Mulan and Jasmine, voices Manang. Rounding out the cast are Manny Jacinto, Dolly de Leon ("Triangle of Sadness"), Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, Amielynn Abellera, Dave Franco and Jenny Slate.

Now, here’s the problem: "Forgotten Island" just opened to $13M domestic and $20.6M worldwide. That's one of the five worst openings in DreamWorks Animation history, against an $80M budget. It didn't even hit its modest $15–17M tracking. Rave audience reactions (93% positive on PostTrak, 97% on RT's Popcornmeter) didn't help either. Nobody showed up.

Can it recover? October's only animated competition is Laika's PG-13 "Wildwood," so there's a chance it finds some legs via word of mouth

The bigger picture, however, is grim. Original animation has struggled mightily this decade. "Elio," "Wish," "Strange World," "Ruby Gillman": all originals, all bombs. Even this year's "Hoppers," at $390M, pales next to the "Inside Out"/"Coco" era. Families will pay for "Toy Story 5."

The current original animated champ of the decade is still Pixar's "Elemental," which topped out at about $496M worldwide in 2023. Compare that to the previous decade, which had "Frozen" ($1.28B), "Zootopia" ($1.02B), "The Secret Life of Pets" ($875M), "Inside Out" ($859M), "Coco" ($823M), "Sing" ($639M) and "Brave" ($539M).

Family audiences won't gamble four tickets on something they've never heard of. And without new originals, there are no new franchises. Studios ucan't keep remaking "How to Train Your Dragon" forever. Next test: Pixar's "Gatto" in spring 2027. Fingers crossed.