In a surprising twist of fate at the often fickle box office, the exceedingly well-reviewed The Wild Robot is opening way ahead of expectations. Deadline has the film now opening at about $35 million, which is about $10 million more than even the most optimistic industry estimates and $20 million or so ahead of my own predictions. Good for Dreamworks, as this really is one of the best movies they’ve ever made (check out Steve Seigh’s rave review right here). In the meantime, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is moving down to second place, with $15.5 million, which will easily put it past the $250 million domestic mark.
Sadly, Transformers One, despite excellent word-of-mouth, is crashing and burning at the box office, posting a huge 59% decline in week two for a $10 million weekend. With a $39 million domestic total, this one will be lucky to cross the $55 million mark by the end of its run, which is disastrous for the franchise. That’s too bad, as it’s actually a good movie! It seems this is one franchise that has maybe run its course, even if Paramount is still planning that crossover movie with G.I Joe.
Meanwhile, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is already being dubbed Megaflopulous online after being beaten Friday night by the Indian Telugu-language flick, Devara Part 1 (which stars RRR’s N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), with Deadline having a hard time pegging the final number. They say it may total anywhere between $3.2-5 million, but either way, that’s a disastrous start for Coppola’s passion project. Truth be told, while I didn’t like the movie (at all – and you can see from my review) it makes me sad that the movie is collapsing so completely at the box office, as even if I didn’t like it – I still kinda think people should see it.