Laika’s “Missing Link” Pulled off a Huge Upset in the Best Animated Feature Category at the Golden Globes

The story of a globe-trotting Sasquatch bombed at the box office, but still beat out four blockbusters from Disney and DreamWorks.

Portland animation studio Laika may have delivered the biggest upset at last night's Golden Globes.

The award for Best Animated Feature went to Missing Link, the film produced by the Hillsboro-based studio that specializes in stop-motion, beating out a field of nominees with larger budgets and better box office returns.

Related: A Local Animator Reflects on the Stop-Motion Process in Laika's New Film, Missing Link.

Writer-director Chris Butler said he was "flabbergasted" while accepting the trophy onstage. This was Laika's first Golden Globe win, though the company has been a contender three times before, with nods going to Coraline (2009), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2017).

If you were betting in a Golden Globes pool, chances are your money was on one of the three Disney projects up for the award. Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 and The Lion King were some of the highest-grossing movies in 2019. DreamWorks' latest installment in the popular How to Train Your Dragon series was also nominated.

Missing Link, meanwhile, bombed at the box office. Despite Laika's solid reputation and characters voiced by big-name celebrities like Hugh Jackman and Zach Galifianakis, the story of a globe-trotting Sasquatch searching for his relatives grossed $5.9 million its opening weekend—the lowest ever for the production company and the 12th worst opening weekend of all-time for a film playing in more than 3,000 theaters, according to the website Comic Book Resources.

Related: Laika's "Missing Link" Had a Historically Bad Opening Weekend at the Box Office.

But now as we head into Oscar season, the movie may be better associated with its trophy count instead of tanking.

Related: Laika's "Missing Link" Was a Historic Bomb, But Nike Tie-In Shoes Were an Unexpected Hit.

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