Box Office Report: Robotic

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 30, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | September 30, 2024 |

Universal and DreamWorks are pushing The Wild Robot hard. Their latest animation has garnered the studio some of the best reviews they’ve ever had. It got a rapturous response when it screened at TIFF earlier this month, and it’s currently the frontrunner for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. So, it premiering in the top spot at the weekend box office was obviously good news. It earned $35 million from 3,962 locations. DreamWorks movies tend to cost way less than the average Disney animation — this one has a reported budget of $78 million — so expect this one to make a comfortable profit in the coming weeks.

Debuting at number four is Devara Part 1, an Indian action drama, starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr. of RRR fame. It opened very strongly with a $5.6 million weekend from 1,040 cinemas. That was enough to put it ahead of the other major release of the weekend, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.

Look, we all knew this film was going to underperform financially. It was practically designed to. It’s a big, expensive vanity project that is wildly unmarketable (and the distributor kept messing up its marketing with weird AI nonsense and Coppola’s anti-woke rant.) The tepid reviews didn’t help. This wasn’t made for anyone other than Coppola, and if you enjoyed it, I’m sure he’s cool with that. It debuted at number six with only $4 million from 1,854 theatres.

Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle turned 20 this month, so Fathom Events re-released it in 1,402 cinemas for an anniversary celebration. If there’s one thing us millennials love, it’s Christian Bale as Howl. It made $1.615 million from 1,402 places.

Lee, the biopic starring Kate Winslet, premiered last year at TIFF but is only getting its wide release now. It didn’t set the world alight and made $723,240 from 854 locations. The horror film Azrael brought in $300,012 from 754 locations. Speaking of TIFF, Saturday Night, about the making of the first-ever episode of SNL, made a highly impressive $265,000 from five cinemas.

This coming week sees the release of Joker: Folie à Deux. Brace yourselves.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.