The Wild Robot Box Office Prediction

DreamWorks Animation hopes families turn up in droves for The Wild Robot when it debuts September 27th. The sci-fi pic is based on a book series by Peter Brown and directed by How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods maker Chris Sanders. Voiceover work comes courtesy of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames.

Robot was unveiled days ago at the Toronto Film Festival to satisfying results. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 100% and it could be a frontrunner for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. DreamWorks is putting this out while Transformers One is only in its sophomore outing. That could slightly limit the opening weekend crowd, but Robot will likely leg out impressively over the next several frames.

I still wouldn’t be surprised if this slightly exceeds tracking and that should mean low to mid 30s.

The Wild Robot opening weekend prediction: $33.8 million

For my Megalopolis prediction, click here:

Oscar Predictions: The Wild Robot

The 74th Academy Awards was the first year where Best Animated Feature was presented and DreamWorks Animation took that initial prize with Shrek. The studio has yet to win the race again as Disney has mostly dominated it. They are hoping for their second statue at the 97th ceremony courtesy of The Wild Robot.

Having premiered at the Toronto Film Festival prior to its September 27th domestic debut, Chris Sanders (co-director of How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods) made the sci-fi fantasy based on Peter Brown’s series of novels. Voiceover work comes from Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, and Ving Rhames.

Early word-of-mouth from our neighbor to the north is welcoming. With an 83% Metacritic score and no tomatoes at press time, The Wild Robot is a serious contender not only for a nomination (which appears to be a foregone conclusion), but a victory.

In order to do that, it will still need to surpass Inside Out 2 from you know who. In my view, that is not a foregone conclusion. Yet DreamWorks probably has its best shot since that green ogre. Beyond Animated Feature, Robot‘s Original Score from Kris Bowers is being heralded. There’s also a song from Maren Morris titled “Kiss the Sky” that looks to make that quintet. Either are possible as those competitions are just starting to take shape. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…