DreamWorks’ universally acclaimed new movie The Wild Robot booted up a $35 million opening weekend at the U.S. box office, delivering the third best opening for an animated movie in September. The movie has gained an A CinemaScore and a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the best-reviewed animated movie of the decade so far and one of the best-reviewed CG-animated movies of all time (right behind Toy Story 1 and 2 and DreamWorks’ own How to Train Your Dragon). It positions the movie as a shoo-in in the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature. Many also believe it’s one of the top contenders in the overall Best Picture race (live-action and animated) this year.
Internationally, The Wild Robot continue to download across its staggered global release with 21 more markets this frame, bringing the total to 29. The weekend brought in $9.9M, bringing its overseas total to $18.1M ($53.1M worldwide).
Based on the popular book series by Peter Brown, the painterly movie is directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods) and features the voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O’Hara, Mark Hamill, Bill Nighy and Ving Rhames, and a brilliant score by Kris Bowers. You can read out interview with the creative team behind the movie here.
The week’s other animated robot movie, Paramount’s Transformers One dropped to the third spot with a $9 million weekend, bringing its gross to a $38.8 million total for its second weekend in theaters. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice continues scaring audiences into theaters in the number-two spot with a $16 million weekend a four-week cume of $250.3M.
The overseas numbers brought the Hasbro bots an additional $16.6M, adding up to $32.8M in international box office so far ($72M globally) — including a No. 1 opening in China with $8M. The film has yet to open in major markets including the U.K., France and Germany.
Hayao Miyazaki continues to cast its magical spell on U.S. audiences with Fathom’s 20th anniversary re-release of Howl’s Moving Castle. The movie collected $2.5 million this weekend in 1,402 theaters and landed on the number 11 position on the box-office chart.
[Sources: Deadline, Box Office Mojo]
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