Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited, self-financed epic, Megalopolis, could not draw in moviegoers, as Chris Sanders’ family-oriented animated film, The Wild Robot, dominated the box office over the weekend. According to studio estimates released on Sunday, The Wild Robot, an adaptation of Peter Brown’s bestselling book, exceeded expectations, raking in $35 million in ticket sales across theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
The Wild Robot tells the heartwarming tale of a shipwrecked robot who becomes a surrogate parent to an orphaned gosling. The film garnered universal acclaim, both from critics and viewers, ultimately earning an A CinemaScore. This positive reception positions The Wild Robot for an extended and profitable run under the Universal Pictures banner. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, suggests that The Wild Robot may follow a trajectory similar to Pixar’s Elemental, another original release that started modestly with $30 million but went on to earn nearly $500 million globally.
Moreover, the success of The Wild Robot contributes significantly to a booming year for family-centric movies. David A. Gross, a film consultant and the publisher of a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment, anticipates that family films will reach a collective gross of $6 billion worldwide in 2024, matching pre-pandemic figures. Inside Out 2, now the year’s biggest hit, has notably bolstered this trend.
On the flip side, Megalopolis, Coppola’s modern-day Roman epic set in New York, faced a rocky start. The film, which has been in development since the late 1970s and boasts a lavish budget of $120 million, only managed to earn $4 million during its debut weekend. This performance is especially disheartening given that Coppola financed the project himself. The film’s reception among critics has been mixed since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and audiences rated it poorly with a D+ CinemaScore.
Despite its box office failure, Coppola, now 85, remains unperturbed by the financial outcome. He envisaged Megalopolis as a profound, personal project, unrestrained by commercial concerns. “Everyone’s so worried about money,” Coppola stated in an interview with the Associated Press prior to the film’s release. “I say: Give me less money and give me more friends.”
The majority of studios passed on distributing Megalopolis after its Cannes debut, until Lionsgate stepped in, albeit for a fee, taking on the project’s distribution. Coppola also covered most of its $15 million in marketing expenses. Starring Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Aubrey Plaza, the film did see some success in IMAX theatres, contributing $1.8 million of its total earnings.
In contrast, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice slipped to second place, collecting $16 million in its fourth weekend since release. This sequel to the 1988 cult classic, featuring Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, has accumulated $250 million domestically.
Third place at the box office went to Transformers One, a spin-off prequel in the Transformers franchise. Starring Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry, the film earned $9.
.3 million in its second weekend, following a debut that fell short of expectations.
Interestingly, the American debut weekend for the Indian Telugu-language action film Devara: Part 1 surpassed Coppola’s epic, grossing $5.1 million and securing fourth place.
In another noteworthy debut, Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a dramatization of the first airing of Saturday Night Live in 1975, performed impressively in a limited release. The film, which premiered in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles, earned $265,000, achieving a strong $53,000 per-theatre average. Saturday Night is scheduled for a nationwide release in two weeks.
Full weekend estimates of ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters according to Comscore will be finalized and made public on Monday. However, early indications of box office standings are as follows:
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
As the industry rebounds from the pandemic, the success of family films, spearheaded by The Wild Robot, highlights a return to normalcy at the box office, while films like Megalopolis show that even established directors can face significant challenges in today’s competitive cinematic landscape.
