This has been an impressive year at the box office thus far for animated features. Between Mike Mitchell's Kung Fu Panda 4, Mark Dindal's The Garfield Movie, Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2, and Chris Renaud's Despicable Me 4, Hollywood's biggest animation studios have a significant presence in the worldwide Top 20 for 2024 (and Josh Cooley's Transformers One is still climbing up the chart). Now looking to join this special club is Chris Sanders' The Wild Robot, which got off to a good start in the last few days by becoming the biggest new film in the United States and Canada.
The latest weekend results are in, and The Wild Robot has become the first title in September 2024 to win a box office crown not titled "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." Check out the full Top 10 below and then join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Wild Robot* | $35,000,000 | $35,000,000 | N/A | 3,962 |
| 2. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | $16,040,000 | $250,133,000 | 1 | 3,804 |
| 3. Transformers One | $9,300,000 | $39,164,000 | 2 | 3,970 |
| 4. Devara Part 1* | $5,600,000 | $5,600,000 | N/A | 1,040 |
| 5. Speak No Evil | $4,300,000 | $28,140,000 | 3 | 2,661 |
| 6. Megalopolis* | $4,000,000 | $4,000,000 | N/A | 1,854 |
| 7. Deadpool & Wolverine | $2,657,000 | $631,257,109 | 5 | 1,975 |
| 8. My Old Ass | $2,224,159 | $2,851,474 | 20 | 1,390 |
| 9. Never Let Go | $2,200,000 | $8,252,523 | 4 | 2,667 |
| 10. The Substance | $1,806,160 | $6,865,275 | 6 | 1,712 |
The Wild Robot Is 2024's Latest Animated Wonder, And It's Off To A Good Start At The Box Office
Some of the reactions to this year's biggest animated movies have been touched with some divisiveness, be it wondering if the Kung Fu Panda and Despicable Me franchises are running out of steam or critics dinging Inside Out 2 in comparison to its phenomenal predecessor, but The Wild Robot has been mostly free of that kind of division. First reactions to the movie arrived earlier this month following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the outpouring of love for the movie has continued since (I gave it 4.5 stars in my CinemaBlend review).
The Wild Robot has been declared by many to be the best animated film of 2024, and that buzz has helped lead to the movie winning the box office following its theatrical debut.
According to The Numbers, The Wild Robot made $35 million in the last three days, which is good enough to be considered the fifteenth best opening weekend of the year thus far (the new release sandwiched between Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus, which earned $42 million in its first three days, and John Krasinski's IF, which made $33.7 million). Of note: it's off to a better start than The Garfield Movie, which made just $24 million when released over Memorial Day weekend, and it completed its theatrical run making $255.3 million worldwide.
As you may have picked up on in the paragraph that opened this box office column, The Wild Robot stands out from the pack in this year's crop of high profile animated features in that its not a sequel and/or based on decades-old intellectual property, but it has been getting exceptionally positive word of mouth, which could end up providing it with long legs as we get deeper into fall. Signs show that it is getting just as much love from audiences as it is from critics, as Rotten Tomatoes features matching 98 percent scores, and surveys distributed to audiences by CinemaScore returned an "A" grade. That's a recipe for repeat viewings, which will hopefully see the film maintain a presence in the Top 10 as the calendar flips over to October.
Overseas, the film is still just starting to cook. In addition to the $35 million the movie made domestically over the weekend, it has also made $18.1 million in foreign marks. That brings its global total to date to $53.1 million.
As far as the full history of DreamWorks Animation opening weekends are concerned, The Wild Robot exists in the middle of the pack (twenty-fourth out of 49 releases), but what is notable is that it is off to a better start than a number of other recent releases from the studio, including Walt Dohrn's Trolls Band Together from 2023 and Pierre Perifel's The Bad Guys.
Looking ahead, there isn't a whole lot of direct competition for the release, as October's slate of horror movies and comic book titles like Todd Philips' Joker: Folie à Deux and Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance aren't exactly aimed at young children, so this weekend's #1 should have a nice runway in front of it.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Moves To Second Place To Close Out September
If it weren't for The Wild Robot, Tim Burton's Beetlejuice Beetlejuice would have had a chance to go four-for-four in September with box office crowns... but c'est la vie. The $16 million it brought in over the last three days was only good enough for second place in the Top 10, but the film continues to perform like gangbusters and establish itself as one of the biggest theatrical hits of 2024.
With the new movie's latest earnings, it has now made over $250 million domestically. It continues to sit in sixth place on the 2024 chart, but it only needs to make about $18 million more to surpass Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters. Whether or not it will make enough money to surpass Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two (which completed its time on the big screen in the United States and Canada making $282.1 million) is an open question.
Worldwide, the long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice has made $373.3 million. Its getting closer and closer to entering the Top 10 for the year, but if it's going to do that, it's going to need to complete its theatrical run with earnings north of $400 million.
Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis Has A Soft Opening, Debuting In Sixth Place
Amid the successes in this week's box office results is the disappointing showing for Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed blockbuster Megalopolis. The movie was in development for decades and features a talented ensemble including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza and Laurence Fishburne, but it wasn't totally able to capitalize on the extremely divisive reaction that it received following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year.
It has been reported by Variety that Megalopolis had a budget of $120 million, but it only managed to make $4 million while playing on 1,854 screens domestically this weekend. The film may end up having a second life on home video, as it is a fascinating work of singular vision from one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of all time (as reflected in CinemaBlend's 2.5 star review), but it's not looking like it's going to be a breakout success on the big screen.
This coming weekend should be an interesting one, as audiences will finally get to see the theatrical release of Joker: Folie à Deux. One will remember that it's a sequel to an Oscar-winning hit that made over $1 billion worldwide back in late 2019, but reactions out of the Venice Film Festival were decidedly mixed. It should significantly shake up the box office Top 10, so be sure to head back to CinemaBlend next Sunday for my latest column – and in the meantime, you can discover all of the big titles set to be released between now and the end of the year with our 2024 Movie Release Calendar.
