Amidst the controversy surrounding Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed, multidecade epic “Megalopolis,” DreamWorks Animation’s highly regarded family film “The Wild Robot” shot to the top of the weekend box office.
According to studio estimates on Sunday, Chris Sanders’ adaptation of Peter Brown’s best-selling novel, “The Wild Robot,” surpassed initial projections and opened with $35 million movie ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters. With critics praising the tale of a shipwrecked robot raising an orphan gosling, “Wild Robot” looked certain to succeed. As a result, the movie received an A CinemaScore from viewers. It is most likely positioned for a long and profitable run for Universal Pictures’ release of “Wild Robot.”
Senior media analyst at Comscore Paul Dergarabedian believes “The Wild Robot” “may take a page from the ‘Elemental’ playbook by opening to respectable box office and then looking toward long-term playability.” Pixar’s “Elemental,” which like “The Wild Robot” wasn’t a sequel, debuted with a modest $30 million but went on to gross nearly $500 million worldwide.
This year, family films have dominated the box office, led by “Inside Out 2,” the greatest blockbuster of the year. The genre should hit $6 billion globally in 2024, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant who writes a weekly for Franchise Entertainment. This, he said, “is back to pre-pandemic levels.”
Coppola’s adaptation of a Roman epic set in contemporary New York, “Megalopolis,” was never predicted to reach that caliber of success. Even still, the movie’s $4 million premiere was sobering for a $120 million production that Coppola personally funded. Critics’ opinions of Coppola’s first picture in thirteen years have been divided since its Cannes Film Festival debut. A D+ CinemaScore was awarded by the crowd.
It was a financial disaster by all standards. However, from the start, the 85-year-old Coppola maintained money wasn’t his concern. Coppola fashioned the film, which he first began developing in the late 1970s, as a grand personal statement about human possibility.
“Megalopolis” has topped the box office for three weeks, with Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” sliding to second place with $16 million in its fourth weekend of release.
The Warner Bros. sequel to the 1988 film has amassed $250 million domestically in a month of release. “Transformers One” topped the box office with $9.3 million on its second weekend. “Megalopolis” was even bested by the Indian Telugu-language action film “Devara: Part 1” with $5.1 million in its opening weekend.
Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” also debuted in theaters, collecting $265,000, good for a strong $53,000 per-theater average. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters are according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “The Wild Robot,” $35 million.
2. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $16 million.
3. “Transformers One,” $9.3 million.
4. “Devara: Part 1,” $5.1 million.
5. “Speak No Evil,” $4.3 million.
6. “Megalopolis,” $4 million.
7. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” $2.7 million.
8. “My Old Ass,” $2.2 million.
9. “Never Let Go,” $2.2 million.
10. “The Substance,” $1.8 million.
(AP)
