DreamWorks Animation’s critically acclaimed book adaptation The Wild Robot, released by Universal Pictures, soared into the weekend having reached a new box office milestone of $300.5 million worldwide as of Friday. Sunday’s numbers show the Chris Sanders-directed hit at No. 5 for its eighth weekend, with an estimated $4.3M take (-35%) from 2,894 theaters, adding up to a domestic cume of $137.8M and $308.5M worldwide.
The pic is the second-highest-grossing non-sequel release of 2024 (behind It Ends with Us) and fourth-biggest studio animated feature of the year globally, internationally and domestically, following record-setter Inside Out 2 (Pixar/Disney), Despicable Me 4 (Illumination/Universal) and Kung Fu Panda 4 (DreamWorks).
Overseas, The Wild Robot is outperforming lifetime grosses for major animation hits including Elemental, Frozen, Sing, Trolls and Moana in Mexico, which is the film’s top international market at $19.5M through Friday. Other top performing territories are the U.K. ($16.5M), France ($12.1M), Australia ($11M), Spain ($9.5M), China ($7.3M), Germany ($7M), Italy ($6.5M), Saudi Arabia ($4.8M) and Korea ($4.5M).
The Wild Robot is currently playing in theaters and is available to rent or own on digital. The film will be released on 4K and Blu-ray on December 3. DreamWorks has also announced a sequel is being planned.
Elsewhere on the weekend domestic charts, GKIDS a launched the rotoscope anime Ghost Cat Anzu in 328 theaters nationwide, opening with $158K and coming in at No. 15, right ahead of Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom (Crunchyroll/Sony) which conjured up another $156K in its second week for a $1.57M cume. And Paramount/Hasbro’s Transformers One has held on in the Top 20 with $69K in its ninth frame ($59M domestic, $128.87M worldwide total).
[Sources: Deadline, Box Office Mojo]
