'The Wild Robot' Charges into Theaters
by EG
Given the disappointing debut of the animated Transformers One last weekend, expectations for this week's new animated robot movie, The Wild Robot, are uncertain. It's likely to take the top spot away from the holdover horror comedy Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but as always, there are no guarantees. Read on for details.
The new arrivals on the box office marquee this weekend make for an unusual recipe, if not a spicy one.ōThe safest and most traditional ingredient is DreamWorks Animaton and Universal’s family film The Wild Robot, based on Peter Brown’s beloved best-seller about a robot nicknamed ROZ who forms an unexpected bond with an orphaned gosling and other creatures after being shipwrecked on a lonely island.
The critically acclaimed CGI-animated film is tracking to open in the $24 million range domestically, although more bullish forecasters believe it could easily fly past $30 million. But it’s understandable why the filmmakers are trying to temper expectations and suggest $20 million-plus after last weekend’s Transformers One, another animated PG-rated pic, came in $5 million behind tracking with a $24.6 million domestic launch.
A story of the bridge between nature and technology, The Wild Robot is directed and written by Oscar-nominee Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods). The high-profile voice cast is led by Lupita Nyong’o, Kit Connor, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy and Stephanie Hsu, alongside pop icons Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames.
The Wild Robot is widely expected to win the weekend head of holdovers Transformers One and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Where the other newcomers land is a major question mark — specifically, Francis Ford Coppola‘s dystopian epic Megalopolis. Tracking suggests the film, starring Adam Driver, may only earn $5 million to $7 million in what would be a financial disaster for project, which cost $120 million to produce before marketing.
As revered as Coppola is, no major Hollywood studio would sign on to finance or distribute Megalopolis in North America after seeing the film at an early buyer’s screening before its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it drew mostly “meh” reviews.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.