DreamWorks Animaton and Universal’s The Wild Robot started off its North American box office run with $1.95 million in Thursday previews, a solid start for a family animated film. The movie is based on Peter Brown’s beloved bestseller about a robot nicknamed ROZ who forms an unexpected bond with an orphaned gosling and other creatures after being shipwrecked on a lonely island.
The critically acclaimed CGI-animated film is tracking to open in the $24 million range domestically, although more bullish forecasters believe it could easily fly past $30 million. But it’s understandable why the filmmakers are trying to temper expectations in suggesting $20 million-plus after last weekend’s Transformers One, another animated PG-rated pic, came in $5 million behind tracking with a $24.6 million domestic launch.
A story of the bridge between nature and technology, The Wild Robot is directed and written by Oscar-nominee Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods). The high-profile voice cast is led by Lupita Nyong’o, Kit Connor, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy and Stephanie Hsu, alongside Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames
The Wild Robot is widely expected to win the weekend head of holdovers Transformers One and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — as well as Francis Ford Coppola‘s dystopian epic Megalopolis, which is tracking to open in the $5 million to $7 million in what would be a financial disaster for project, which cost $120 million to produce before marketing.
The film earned $770,000 in previews held Tuesday and Thursday nights.
As revered as Coppola is, no major Hollywood studio would sign on to finance or distribute Megalopolis in North America after seeing the film at an early buyer’s screening before its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it drew mostly meh reviews. Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf also star in Coppola’s epic reimagining of the Roman Empire in modern-day New York City on the brink of ruin.
Lionsgate ultimately signed on to release the movie domestically, but isn’t on the hook for distribution or marketing costs. Imax is also in Coppola’s corner after the director used Imax-certified cameras to shoot portions of the movie, with Megalopolis booked to play in roughly 200 Imax theaters, or about half the large-format’s circuit, during select showtimes.
Earlier this week, Coppola compared the film’s storyline to the current political situation in the U.S. before a screening of Megalopolis at the New York Film Festival, suggesting that the 2024 presidential election may mirror the downfall of Rome. His comments were streamed into 65 cinemas across the U.S. and Canada with support from Imax.
If Coppola is taking aim at the politics of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, moviegoers have the option to instead support Vindicating Trump, the latest documentary from conservative pundit and Trump supporter Dinesh D’Souza that examines the obstacles facing the GOP nominee in his bid to reclaim the Oval Office.
D’Souza’s doc — made in cooperation with Trump, who has been personally plugging the film — is expected to play in between 500 to 700 theaters nationwide. Faith-based distributor SDG, home of Am I Racist?, is handling Vindicating Trump in North America. Highlights include D’Souza interviewing Trump after a would-be assassin’s bullet clipped Trump’s ear.
At the specialty box office, Sony opens Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night — a love letter to the long-running NBC sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live — in four locations in New York and Los Angeles.
