This weekend had some big changes at the movies! The family-friendly film “The Wild Robot” took the top spot, while “Megalopolis,” the long-awaited film from director Francis Ford Coppola, didn’t do as well as expected.
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“The Wild Robot” Takes the Lead
“The Wild Robot,” directed by Chris Sanders, surprised everyone by earning an amazing $35 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada. This animated film is based on a popular book by Peter Brown and tells a touching story about a robot who washes up on an island after a shipwreck.
The robot finds an orphan gosling and takes care of it. Families loved it, giving it an A CinemaScore, which is a great rating! Critics praised the movie, so it looks like “The Wild Robot” will have a successful run in theaters.
Paul Dergarabedian, a media expert, thinks it could do as well as Pixar's “Elemental,” which started with decent ticket sales but ended up making almost $500 million worldwide.
This year has been fantastic for family movies, especially with big hits like “Inside Out 2.” Film expert David A. Gross predicts that family films will earn $6 billion around the world in 2024, which is great news after the pandemic affected the movie industry.
“Megalopolis” Flops
On the other hand, “Megalopolis” faced a tough start. Even though it was a film Coppola dreamed about for many years and spent $120 million on, it only made $4 million in its opening weekend.
This was very disappointing for a movie that had a lot of buzz around it. After showing at the Cannes Film Festival, reviews from critics were mixed, and audiences didn’t like it much either, giving it a D+ CinemaScore.
Coppola, who is 85 years old, has always said he wasn’t worried about making money from the film. He believes in creating art that means something.
He told the Associated Press, “Everyone’s so worried about money. I say: Give me less money and give me more friends.” He paid for the film himself and also covered much of its $15 million marketing costs. It features stars like Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Aubrey Plaza.
Other Movies in Theaters
Even though “Megalopolis” struggled, other films are doing great. Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” dropped to second place after three weeks at the top, making $16 million this weekend.
This sequel to the classic 1988 film has earned $250 million in just one month! In third place is “Transformers One,” which made $9.3 million in its second weekend.
Surprisingly, “Megalopolis” was even beaten by the Indian action film “Devara: Part 1,” which earned $5.1 million in its opening weekend and came in fourth.
A new movie called “Saturday Night,” directed by Jason Reitman, also opened in theaters. This film is about the famous sketch-comedy show that first aired in 1975. It opened in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles, earning $265,000 with an average of $53,000 per theater. This movie will be in more theaters in two weeks.
