The Wild Robot Strides to Opening Weekend Success

There’s been a variety of movies that came out in September, from nostalgic revivals and remakes to robot action and big passion projects. Closing out the month are Dreamworks’ The Wild Robot and Lionsgate’s Megalopolis, both with sizable pre-release buzz behind them, and between the two, it’s the family-friendly flick that took home the day.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Wild Robot ended up overperforming in its debut weekend. Glowing critic and audience reception has resulted in a $35 million domestic opening and $53.1 million overall. The CG-animated movie starring Lupita Nyong’o and Pedro Pascal has had a lot of momentum and hype behind it owing to its visuals and trailers, and it seems to have paid off, since the movie itself reportedly cost $78 million to make. According to analyst Luis Fernando, the domestic opening also succeeds Elemental’s $29 million domestic opening to become the biggest opening for a theatrical, original animated film during the COVID times.

Meanwhile, Megalopolis did pretty rough. Francis Ford Coppola’s repeatedly controversial romantic epic made a reported $4 million domestically, lower than its initial $5-7 million projections. (And it might actually be lower than that.) At time of writing, a global release hasn’t been locked down, but the film’s current performance is another ding for Lionsgate, which has had a pretty rough run at the movies, box office-wise. It doesn’t help that critics and audiences aren’t really gelling with it: there’s some who get who Coppola is aiming for and can find its bright spots, but most have come out of it not really positively, which distributors reportedly fretted about months ago before Lionsgate stepped in.

With September over, it’s now to move right on into October. While Salem’s Lot hits Max on October 3, the big release in theaters on Friday the 4th is Joker: Folie à Deux, along with fellow horror flicks Monster Summer and The Forest Hills. The following week includes Hellboy: The Crooked Man on streaming (October 7) and Terrfier 3 (October 11), then Smile 2 on October 18.

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