Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Crosses $400 Million at Global Box Office

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has scurried past the 400-million-dollar mark at the global box office. As of Wednesday, director Joel Crawford’s spin-off sequel has collected $401.5 million (about Rs. 3,318 crore), to earn 14th place among the highest-grossing releases of 2022. Out of that figure, $241.4 million (about Rs. 1,995 crore) were pulled from markets outside the US, with Mexico being the top market. Within the US and Canada, the animated swashbuckling-kitty film has earned $160.1 million (about Rs. 1,323 crore). With these numbers, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish remains the no. 3 studio animated movie since the pandemic era.

As per Deadline’s estimations, by this weekend, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will surpass the box office numbers set by Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Uncharted. As mentioned before, Mexico remains the top market, collecting $23.9 million (about Rs. 198 crore), followed closely by France which drew $20.3 million (about Rs. 168 crore). Germany comes third, adding $16.2 million (about Rs. 134 crore) in ticket sales, while Brazil pulled $15.4 million (about Rs. 127 crore). The top five regions for the film were rounded out by Australia with $14 million (about Rs. 116 crore) in ticket sales so far.

In India, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has collected merely $390,681 (about Rs. 3.2 crore). For distributor Universal Pictures, it is the third biggest studio animated release since the pandemic. The first position is held by Minions: The Rise of Gru, which made an incredible $939.6 million (about Rs. 7,766 crore) last year, followed by 2021’s Sing 2 with $413 million (about Rs. 3,414 crore). The film has also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

Drawing inspiration from Spaghetti Western films, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish sees Antonio Banderas returning to voice the titular fugitive cat, alongside Salma Hayek as companion Kitty Softpaws, the street-savvy ex-fiancée. In it, our lead Puss in Boots has a rude awakening, realising that he’s carelessly burned through eight of his nine cat lives and that his next encounter with death could mean the end of his legend. As a last resort, he then embarks on a mythical quest to find the fabled wishing star to help replenish his life supply. Despite being a spin-off sequel to the 2011 Puss in Boots, much of the cast here is new — Harvey Guillén as Perrito the mistreated dog, Florence Pugh (Black Widow) as Goldilocks, Wagner Moura as the cunning Wolf, and Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) as Mama Bear.

Akin to DreamWorks Animation’s previous project The Bad Guys, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish follows a similar animation style as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — hand-drawn art with frame drops during action segments. “In the opening, we use more hand-drawn techniques,” director Crawford explained in an interview. “When Puss is running on the rooftops, the motion isn’t always super-smooth. That was important to us, to feel like this is a fairy tale that you’re being dropped into…”, said Crawford.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is now running in theatres worldwide, including in India.