Box office Corpse Bride grossed $53.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $64.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $118.1 million. In its second weekend, the film dropped to number three, grossing an additional $10 million. In its third weekend, the film dropped to number six, grossing $6.5 million. The biggest market in other territories being France, United Kingdom, and Japan, where the film grossed $8.9 million, $8.6 million and $7.1 million respectively.
Critical response Corpse Bride has been well received since its release, with many critics praising its animation and story. On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "As can be expected from a Tim Burton movie,
Corpse Bride is whimsically
macabre, visually imaginative, and emotionally bittersweet."
Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 based on top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 83 based on 35 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Justin Chang of
Variety gave the film a positive review, saying, "This macabre musical about a young bridegroom who mistakenly weds a girl from beyond the grave is an endearingly
schizoid Frankenstein of a movie, by turns relentlessly high-spirited and darkly poignant." Kirk Honeycutt of
The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "A wondrous flight of fancy, a stop-motion-animated treat brimming with imaginative characters, evocative sets, sly humor, inspired songs and a genuine whimsy that seldom finds its way into today's movies."
Michael Atkinson of
The Village Voice gave the film a positive review, saying, "The variety of its cadaverous style is never less than inspired; never has the human skull's natural grin been redeployed so exhaustively for yuks."
Owen Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B, saying, "As an achievement in macabre visual wizardry, Tim Burton's
Corpse Bride has to be reckoned some sort of marvel."
Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "Cinema's reinvigorated fixation with the living dead suggests that we are in the grip of an impossible longing, or perhaps it's just another movie cycle running its course. Whatever the case, there is something heartening about Mr. Burton's love for bones and rot here, if only because it suggests, despite some recent evidence, that he is not yet ready to abandon his own dark kingdom." Moira MacDonald of
The Seattle Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "What makes
Corpse Bride sing, ultimately, is the breadth of imagination that it demonstrates; creating a cluttered, textured and mysteriously beautiful world that we're loathe to leave at the end." Liam Lacey of
The Globe and Mail gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "Ghoulishness and innocence walk hand-in-hand in Tim Burton's
Corpse Bride, a movie that digs into
Hollywood's past to resurrect the antique art of stop-motion animation and create a fabulous bauble of a movie." Peter Howell of the
Toronto Star gave the film four out of four stars, saying, "If his
The Nightmare Before Christmas from a dozen years back was a treat for the eyes and mind, Tim Burton's
Corpse Bride goes double or nothing by being a delight for the ears and also the heart." Roger Moore of the
Orlando Sentinel gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "The sweetness, the visual flourishes and inspired pieces of casting carry the
Corpse Bride, if not all the way down the primrose path, then at least across the threshold." Robert K. Elder of the
Chicago Tribune gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "If
Nightmare Before Christmas was a
jazzy pop number,
Corpse Bride is a
waltz—an elegant, deadly funny bit of macabre matrimony."
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times gave the film two out of five stars, saying, "The film does have a fairy-tale aspect, but, like many of its characters, it is more dead and buried than fully alive."
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone gave the film three and a half stars out of five, saying, "In the guise of a family film, Burton evokes a darkly erotic obsession that recalls
Edgar Allan Poe and
Hitchcock's
Vertigo. It would be a test for any filmmaker, and Burton aces it." Terry Lawson of the
Detroit Free Press gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "There's a happy
Halloween in store even for children who aren't allowed to trick or treat, and it's courtesy of Tim Burton's animated
Corpse Bride." Rene Rodriguez of the
Miami Herald gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying, "
Corpse Bride suffers from the same problem that has plagued Burton's recent live-action films: for all its formidable razzle-dazzle, it doesn't engage the heart." The film won the
National Board of Review for Best Animated Feature in 2005 and the
Annie Awards Ub Iwerks Award for Technical Achievement in 2006, where it was also nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Character Design, and Best Direction. The film was named winner of the Best European Feature Film category at the British Animation Awards in 2006. In 2008, the
American Film Institute nominated this film for its
Top 10 Animation Films list. ==See also==