The Sheep Detectives North America Box Office: Can It Outgross Hugh Jackman’s Missing Link?

Here’s the North American total The Sheep Detectives needs to reach to surpass the domestic earnings of Hugh Jackman’s Academy Award-nominated film Missing Link.

- May 4, 2026 | 3:36 PM IST

The Sheep Detectives North America Box Office ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Hugh Jackman achieved global recognition after being cast in Bryan Singer’s Marvel superhero film X-Men (2000), which proved a critical and commercial success. Later, the Oscar-nominated actor reprised his role as Wolverine and starred in multiple Marvel superhero films, including the most recent MCU blockbuster, Deadpool & Wolverine. And now, his next film, The Sheep Detectives, is all set to hit the big screen on May 8, 2026.

The mystery comedy is based on Leonie Swan’s 2005 novel Three Bags Full and written by Chornobyl and The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin. At the time of writing, it holds a stellar 94% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. The 57-year-old star was last seen on the big screen in the critically acclaimed biographical musical drama Song Sung Blue (2025), which earned $39.2 million in North America.

While it remains to be seen whether The Sheep Detectives will be able to outgross Song Sung Blue’s domestic total, let’s take a look at how much the upcoming Kyle Balda-directed feature needs to earn to surpass the domestic earnings of Hugh Jackman’s Academy Award-nominated film, Missing Link (2019).

Let’s first see how Missing Link performed at the box office, according to data from Box Office Mojo.

Missing Link – Box Office Summary

North America: $16.6 million
International: $9.9 million
Worldwide: $26.5 million

Based on the above figures, it can be observed that for The Sheep Detectives to surpass the North American total of Missing Link, it would need to earn at least $16.6 million domestically.

The 2019 film opened to $5.9 million in North America. On the other hand, The Sheep Detectives is tracking to earn between $10 million and $15 million in its opening weekend in North America, according to a recent industry estimate by Box Office Pro.

Based on these opening weekend numbers and considering the film’s positive critical reception, The Sheep Detectives appears to be in a good position to outgross the Oscar-nominated animated film at the domestic box office. However, the final verdict should become clear only after its theatrical release on May 8.

What Is The Plot Of Sheep Detectives?

The mystery comedy film follows the story of a shepherd (Hugh Jackman), who likes to read detective stories to his sheep every night despite believing they don’t understand anything he says. The plot takes an interesting turn when a mysterious incident disrupts their peaceful farm life. The sheep decide to investigate the matter themselves by following clues and asking questions to human suspects to get to the bottom of the mystery.