Saturday, June 28, 2008

RoBox Office

With Extra Crispy Add Ons.

To nobody's surprise, Wall-E takes in $23,300,000 on Friday. This betters Kung Fu Panda's strong opening by $3.3 million ...

Clicking early b.o. numbers into the Koch Calculator, Wall-E should clock $66-$73 million for the weekend. (KFP, by way of contrast, totaled $60 million).

The big animated releases this year ar batting three for three, which is good for the entire industry, yes?

Add On: And the Wallster pretty much replicates KFP's feat of three (or was it four?) weeks ago.

Where Panda walked away with $60 million in Weekend One, Wall-E collected $62.5 mill (a slightly better Friday probably told the tale). And the Koch Calculator is over by $3.5 million, where its overage was $4 million for KFP.

And the Calculator gives the Pixar hit a final domestic total of $220 million. (A month hence, we'll see how close that number comes to reality.)

In #2, the pistol packing Jolie sees a $51.1 million opening for the blood-soaked Wanted.

Get Smart drops 48% to #3 with a current total of $77,266,000.

Kung Fu Panda drops a notch to fourth, claws its way to $11,746,000 and now owns $179,330,000 domestic doubloons.

Meanwhile, the seventh Place Indiana Jones is now mere pennies from the $300 million plateau.

Add On Too: The L.A. Times notes where Wall-E falls in the Pixar/Disney opening-week pantheon:

The animated movie ... was the third-best opening for a Pixar film and the biggest ever June premiere for a Disney film ...

Not bad for a film about robots. But the Pixar 'bots talk way less than the contraptions in Blue Sky's robot movie.

Add On Three: Per Variety, Wall-E ended up with $63 million for the weekend. So the Koch Calculator was off a a mere million.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wall-e is such a great motion picture, and elicited such delight from the audiences I've seen it with (twice so far). It's hands down the best film this year so far, and the best animated film since Totoro. Another crown in Pixar's run. Even their [so called] "lesser" films are better than anything anyone else is producing out there--especially in America.

Anonymous said...

I saw Wall-E today and I guess I just don’t get it. I was bored in it. I really don’t understand the hype for it.
I saw it with my wife and kids and everyone including me all think Kung-Fu Panda was a better film. I would like to see Kung-Fu Panda again, but not Wall-E.
Sorry Pixar, but The Incredibles was your last “good” film since Monsters Inc.

Anonymous said...

I see the post about Disney lowering wages was removed. Any reason why? Is this secret information?

Anonymous said...

I saw Wall*E today...and I wasn't blown away by the story. Of course, the visuals were fantastic, and there were some wonderfully funny and touching moments...but I was ready for the movie to be over about a half hour before it actually ended. I think the environmentally-charged storyline was a bit of a downer, frankly, and I didn't leave the theatre with a feeling of joy. I felt like I'd been entertained for about 45 minutes and then preached to for the remainder. I wish Pixar would go back to doing fun movies without such an emphasis on making a statement or something. I have to admit, overall, Kung Fu Panda WAS more fun that this, even with its huge plot holes and the fact I felt sorrier for the leopard than I did the panda. Which doesn't mean I think Wall*E is a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination...it's just not as fun as I'd hoped it would be..."Presto" was super cool though, and Disney/Pixar is to be applauded for bringing back cartoon shorts. May Saint Walter bless them from above... ;)

Anonymous said...

I agree kUNG FU Panda is a really great film. Probably Dreamworks best. I 've seen it twice and my kids loved it too.

i do plan on seeing the Pixar's robot soon.

Anonymous said...

Kung Fu Panda was a fun popcorn movie. Well animated, fun to look at, and certainly enjoyable.

But Wall-e was something else altogether. I It was moving to me in ways no other film in the last few years has been. It is brilliantly excecuted nd timely, without ever becoming preachy.

And beautiful. The lighting, the cinematography, the textures, and the animation never overwhelmed the emotional content or entertainment--or disctracted from it. Nor was the design of the film "designy" for designs sake. The animation was so sincere, and believable, and at the end, touching.

I cannot wait to see it again.

Anonymous said...

KFP will not stand the test of time. If you GET Wall-E you will enjoy it. KFP and all DW films appeal to LCD.

Anonymous said...

If Wall-E makes the 65 mill it's supposed to then whether you like it or not it is appealing to th LCD as well. You Effing elitists snob!

Anonymous said...

I GOT Wall*E, thank you very much. And I've got a B.A. and I've made the dean's list twice, so what am I, LCD or an elitist snob? You decide. I just thought KFP was more overall fun than Wall*E. If Wall*E had been shortened and the whole fat-people-in-space (Pigs In Space?) had been downplayed or left out altogether I would have enjoyed Wall*E more. *shrug* FWIW.

Anonymous said...

Just to be clear: the suggestion wasn't that anyone who liked Wall-E was an "elitist snob" just people that made the claim W-E was a better film then KFP because KFP appealed only to the LCD were elitist snobs with their heads up their asses. Anyone who would suggest that Pixar was trying to appeal to LCD doesn't understand business very well.

Steve Hulett said...

I see the post about Disney lowering wages was removed. Any reason why? Is this secret information?

It vanished because last night I hit the wrong damn button on the blog dashboard.

It's now up again.

Anonymous said...

right now I must admit my summer animation vote is for KFP.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing wrong with KFP at all. It's just nice to see a a studio like Pixar taking real chances with the medium, risking failure to the "nth" degree to do so. Dreamworks tried to do this with their first film, "POE," but failed. And since then they've been afraid to trust their own instincts. BUT...at least their films are starting to look a little better.

Anonymous said...

It's funny. Virtually all of my animation friends concur that they are somewhat disappointed with Wall-E. Generally, they love the beginning, and don't like the next 2/3 of the movie. This was my appraisal as well.

Yet the film reviewers, and the public at large, seem to have a very different opinion. Most just love the movie outright, with no complaints. Of those that do complain, I've heard some actually dislike the beginning (too slow!).

I know that animation people often have a different take on animated movies than the general public, but this seems surprisingly different.

Anonymous said...

Too bad that anyone feels the need to turn this into a Kung Fu Panda "vs." WALL-E competition.

BOTH of them are good movies in their own way. Both films are hits . What's not to like ? Successful animation studios, more films coming down the pipeline, more work .

Anonymous said...

true.

if Pixar's WALL E takes in as much or more than KFP it is great for all of the industry. I was actually hoping WALLE would of hit 70M, because as everyone should know by now its all about the opening weekend sadly.

Anonymous said...

I agree. No "Wall-e" vs. "Kung." It's nice to see DW finally begin to hit it's stride after so many mis-fires (animation-wise).

Anonymous said...

That's really amazing that people imagine Wall-E to be "environmentally charged" and preachy.

I thought it was a promising movie, but ruined for me by all the advance PR that gave away too many plot points.

That last trailer they put out with the british voice over was particularly damaging.

I wish I could have been as shocked and surprised as some of the commenters above.

Anonymous said...

"It's funny. Virtually all of my animation friends concur that they are somewhat disappointed with Wall-E. Generally, they love the beginning, and don't like the next 2/3 of the movie. This was my appraisal as well."


No surprise there. I have an enduring contempt for the majority of the artists in this industry. There are the few learned standouts and then the legion of mouth breathing comic book dufuses who spend their time retreating from any engagement of the outside world, growing old bitter instead of doing it with grace and wondering why all executives hate them. Like its SO hard to see?!?!

Anonymous said...

No surprise there. I have an enduring contempt for the majority of the artists in this industry. There are the few learned standouts and then the legion of mouth breathing comic book dufuses who spend their time retreating from any engagement of the outside world, growing old bitter instead of doing it with grace and wondering why all executives hate them. Like its SO hard to see?!?!


Hmmm. They're bitter, you say?

Anonymous said...

Surprised to see all the Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E comparisons about which one was "funnier" on this board especially (where animation is known as a medium, and not a genre. It was obvious to me after seeing it that it was a completely different type of movie from Panda. Both were great, but it is hard to compare the two just because the tone was different in each.

Excellent movie, best of the summer so far for me. I viewed the second part more as satire than being preachy, so I wasn't affected by any messages. First part was definitely a masterpiece.

Anonymous said...

lcd? wtf does that mean?!

W-e was preachy! What was with the live action footage though?!? I found that a little jarring.

I found the beguining enthraling, and later, the pace quickenend, which was good. But the whole fat people thing was a bit harsh. Pixar is forgetting that there's tons of qyms, yoga and pilates classes all over the place doing brisk bussiness these days...so I think they're wrong on this!! While I'm not saying that the problem of obesity is non existent in the present, I don't see it reaching the levels illustrated in the movie.

I did enjoy the film after all, but I loved the short before it!

Rufus.

Anonymous said...

Rufus - IMO that whole section of the movie was an exaggeration, just satire. I thought it was very well done and it didn't distract me from the main story that much (I thought Happy Feet's last section was WAY more preachy than this and really clubbed me over the head with their message).

That said, I've heard a lot of comments like yours so I guess it just depends on the person.

Anonymous said...

Wall e

180 million to produce
54 million to promote

those are some crazy numbers to be spending.

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