Francis Ford Coppola's decades-in-the-making, self-financed epic Megalopolis flopped with moviegoers, while the acclaimed DreamWorks Animation family film Wild Robot soared to No. 1 at the weekend box office. Wild Robot, Chris Sanders' adaptation of Peter Brown's bestseller, outperformed expectations to launch with $35 million in ticket sales in US and Canada theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. Critics have raved about the story of a shipwrecked robot who raises an orphan gosling, the AP reports. Audiences agreed, giving the Universal Pictures film an A CinemaScore.
Megalopolis, Coppola's vision of a Roman epic set in modern-day New York, was a mega-flop by any financial measure. Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, critics have been mixed on Coppola's first film in 13 years, which he bankrolled himself for $120 million. Audiences gave in a D+ CinemaScore. Coppola fashioned the film, which he began developing in the late 1970s, as a grand personal statement about human possibility. Studios passed on Megalopolis after Cannes. Lionsgate ultimately stepped forward to distribute it, for a fee. The film, which stars Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Aubrey Plaza, also played in about 200 IMAX locations, which accounted for $1.8 million of its ticket sales.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- The Wild Robot, $35 million.
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, $16 million.
- Transformers One, $9.3 million.
- Devara: Part 1, $5.1 million.
- Speak No Evil, $4.3 million.
- Megalopolis, $4 million.
- Deadpool & Wolverine, $2.7 million.
- My Old Ass, $2.2 million.
- Never Let Go, $2.2 million.
- The Substance, $1.8 million.
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