"Wild Robot," Chris Sanders' adaptation of Peter Brown's bestseller, outperformed expectations to launch with $35 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canada theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Wild Robot" was poised to do well after critics raved about the story of a shipwrecked robot who raises an orphan gosling. Audiences agreed, giving the film an A Cinema Score. "Wild Robot" is likely set up a long and lucrative run for the Universal Pictures release.
"Megalopolis," Coppola's vision of a Roman epic set in modern-day New York, was never expected to perform close to that level. But the film's $4 million debut was still sobering for a movie that Coppola bankrolled himself for $120 million. Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, critics have been mixed on Coppola's first film in 13 years.
Audiences gave in a D+ Cinema Score. By any financial measure, "Megalopolis" was a mega-flop. But from the start, the 85-year-old Coppola maintained money wasn't his concern.
Coppola fashioned the film, which he first began developing in the late 1970s, as a grand personal statement about human possibility. "Everyone's so worried about money," Coppola told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the film's release. "I say: Give me less money and give me more friends.
" Studios passed on "Megalopolis" after Cannes. Lionsgate ultimately stepped forward to distribute it, for a fee. Coppola also picked up the tab for most of its $15 million in marketing costs.
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