DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Wild Robot grossed $1.95 million yesterday in 3,000 theaters with a showing that started at 2 p.m.
The film, which features the voice of Lupita Nyong’o, is expected to top the box office with more than $20 million, and its preview suggests that, considering DWA’s previous work, its first-day box office gross was $930. You can see that it is higher than “Trolls Band Together” ($1.3 million), which went for 10,000 dollars. Its opening gross was $30 million, surpassing Bad Guys, which had a preview gross of $1.15 million, a first-day gross of $7.98 million, and an opening gross of $23.9 million.
All of a sudden, The Wild Robot’s PostTrak was great, with 5 stars from general audiences, 4 and a half stars from parents, and 5 stars from kids under 12. Last night’s ratings were 72% for general viewers, 18% for parents, and 10% for children. Among general viewers, 53% were male, and mothers were more likely than fathers, 58% to 42%. And as expected, 53% of children under 12 were mostly girls. The Wild Robot is based on Peter Brown’s award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller.
‘Megalopolis’
American Zoetrope/Mihai Malaimea
Francis Ford Coppola/Zoetrope’s $120 million self-funded Lionsgate release Megalopolis grossed $770,000, including Monday’s live IMAX event. I told you that that alone brought in about $300,000 in revenue.
When it comes to recent compilations, many point to another film directed by Kevin Costner, Horizon, which cost more than $100 million. The film grossed $800,000 at previews, $4.09 million on its first day, and $11 million at the end of June.
With Megalopolis’ opening price set at $5 million to $7 million, no one expects it to be a success. The red dot fell on Coppola’s winery management, clearly a huge loss. Already Thursday night’s finish rate was a poor 1/2 star, with a 45% positive rating on PostTrak. There aren’t many movies with such big stars. What should be celebrated is that the 85-year-old five-time Oscar-winning filmmaker is dreaming of a theatrical release instead of being sidelined or lost to streaming. Lionsgate has no skin in the game. They’re just a distributor and Coppola is handling the marketing costs, which I hear is between $15 million and $17 million. Sources say Lionsgate intends to walk away with a distribution fee of $3 million to $5 million, no matter how bad Megalopolis does.
I’ve heard that Imax is the main artery for this film, with the most advance sales for large-format screening times.
Who starred in Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Jon Voight, and Nathalie Emmanuel’s dystopian epic last night?69% mostly men, 64% young viewers under 25 . If you want to call it the highest rating, women over 25 (23% of the audience) gave it a 50%. Rotten Tomatoes critical score is 50% Rotten.
Only time will tell how big of a dent Hurricane Helen will be at the box office. According to Weather.com, the 400 are in South Carolina (1.3 million), Florida (1.1 million), Georgia (1.07 million), North Carolina (614,000), and Virginia (43,000). More than 10,000 homes and businesses are without power.
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