Chris Sanders’ ‘The Wild Robot’ Debuts At #1
Universal’s Dreamworks Animation is two for two in 2024, with both of its theatrical releases now having opened at #1 in the U.S. marketplace.
Its newest film, Chris Sanders’ heartwarming The Wild Robot, opened last weekend with an estimated $35 million. The film’s audience skewed young, attracting most of its audience (62%) for showings before 5 pm. Additionally, one out of three viewers were under the age of 13.
Peter Brown’s original novel that inspired the film is well known to grade-school children, likely helping boost awareness of the title among family audiences. The opening weekend drew around 2.7 million admissions, per EntTelligence reporting, with an average ticket price of around $13.
The film’s opening is nearly identical to Sanders’ first animated feature Lilo & Stitch, which launched with $35.2m in 2002. But ticket prices back then cost less than half of what they do today, so it can safely be assumed that the opening weekend audience for that earlier Disney film was at least twice that of The Wild Robot.
Another similarity between the films is their budgets – The Wild Robot cost $78 million to produce, while Lilo & Stitch came in around $80 million. The days of $150 million Dreamworks productions may be over, but Sanders has proven that in the hands of a master director, even half that budget is sufficient to produce a gorgeous and impactful cg feature.
In the U.S., The Wild Robot ranks as the third-best opening for an animated film released in September, following 2012’s Hotel Transylvania ($42.5m) and 2015’s Hotel Transylvania 2 ($48.4m).
Internationally, Wild Robot continued its staggered rollout. The film picked up from $9.8m from 29 territories, including a #1 launch in Mexico with $3.7m. The film’s global total after its first American weekend stands at $53m.
In other robot-related U.S. box office news, Paramount’s Transformers One slipped a troubling 62% in its 2nd weekend. Its $9.3m weekend take was good for third place. The film has now grossed $39.1m domestic.
Overseas, the story isn’t much brighter for the Josh Cooley-directed pic. Transformers One managed only $16.6m from 61 markets, with nearly half of that coming from a #1 launch in China ($8m). It has grossed $32.8m internationally, and its worldwide total stands at $71.9m.
It should be pointed out that the movie’s $75 million budget was split three ways between Paramount, Hasbro, and New Republic Pictures. So even if the film ends up in the red after marketing and distribution, losses will be limited due to the shared financing structure. Nevertheless, after the disappointing performance of this pic, don’t expect more expensive animated Transformers titles anytime soon.
