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At last night's Awardsline screening of Focus Features' The Boxtrolls, directors Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable brought their bag of tricks, err, stop-motion dolls, and revealed to the audience the process behind the Oscar-nominated animated feature. "This project was percolating at Laika for 10 years in the…

There’s a lot on the line tonight for the Best Animated Feature nominees at the 42nd annual Annie Awards. The champion should be considered the favorite to win the Oscar next month, as nine of the 13 winners since the Best Animated Feature Oscar category was introduced also took the top prize at the Annies. That…

Although there were more than the usual number of snubs and surprises in this morning’s Oscar nominations, easily the most animated cries of shock came in, well, the Animated Feature category. If ever there was a sure thing going into today’s nominations, it was that Warner Bros’ blockbuster toon The Lego Movie not…

Want to know what to get that special someone who has everything? Well, your guess is as good as ours, but here’s a idea on where to get it wrapped for free. The Boxtrolls gift-wrapping truck is making stops around Los Angeles to promote Tuesday’s digital release of the toon, which stars Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead…

Big Hero 6, Cheatin', How to Train Your Dragon 2, Song Of The Sea, The Book Of Life, The Boxtrolls, The LEGO Movie and The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya have been nominated in the top category for the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood’s 42nd annual Annie Awards. The Annies cover 36 categories and…

The Boxtrolls producer Travis Knight (ParaNorman, Coraline) and director Anthony Stacchi (Open Season) talk with Deadline’s Pete Hammond about the challenges and joys of stop-motion animation, a creation process nearly as old (and beloved) as cinema itself, in this video from Deadline’s recent Oscar showcase, The…

After releasing Oscar-nominated Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), and last weekend’s The Boxtrolls to acclaim, Focus Features and Portland-based animation studio LAIKA have extended their partnership for three more films. Under the deal Focus will again handle domestic distribution while Universal Pictures…

Final UPDATE, 3:30 PM: Final grosses have been updated for the following films: The Equalizer, The Maze Runner, The Boxtrolls, Annabelle, Lucy, Hercules, Into the Storm, Let’s Be Cops, The Drop, If I Stay, The Dwarf, Boyhood, Get On Up, Sex Tape, horror films The Purge: Anarchy and As Above/So Below, 22 Jump Street, El…

UPDATE, MONDAY, 1:44 PM: The Equalizer came in beneath Sony’s estimates, bringing in $34.1 million for the three-day weekend, easily running over the other newcomer, the animated The Boxtrolls. However, the Denzel Washington film is likely to get side-swiped next weekend by the David Fincher-directed mystery thriller G…

Sony and Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer opened on 2,693 runs last night starting at 7 PM and took in about $1.45M. The best comp for this one is probably 2 Guns, which grossed about $1.27M at 8 PM screenings and ended up at $27M for the weekend. Another comp to look at is Liam Neeson’s Non-Stop which — like the…

Sony and Denzel Washington hope The Equalizer is the beginning of a franchise for them and it could very well be while the stop-motion 3-D animated film The Boxtrolls is a welcome family film during what has been a bit of a dry spell of animated fare so the kids should gobble this one up. It’s going into a the second…

The 3D stop-motion animated The Boxtrolls from Focus Features opens wide at the box office Friday, and looks set to take over the family market from Dolphin Tale 2. Laika, the Animation outfit based in Oregon and responsible for both Paranorman and Coraline which both won Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature…