Wall-E, Wanted make box office history

The robot adventure Wall-E marched to a triumphant first place this weekend, taking an estimated $62.5 million in 3,992 locations across the country and wowing film critics, some of whom are awarding it possible “best picture of the year” status. The space adventure depicts a lonely robot who finds a new purpose in life when he discovers a sleek new robot named EVE. The computer-generated animation film gave Pixar its ninth consecutive first place premiere and was the eighth largest opening ever for an animated film. Wall-E was the third best opening for a G-rated film after (after Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.).

Snagging a strong second place was the Angelina Jolie thriller Wanted, about an ordinary office worker (James McAvoy) who is recruited by a Fox (Jolie) into an elite secret society of assassins. The R-rated adventure, also co-starring Morgan Freeman, scored an estimated $51.1 million from 3,175 locations. It was the seventh largest opening in box office history for any R-rated film. Together, the weekend’s top two films raked in $114 million in combined ticket sales, marking the first time in history that two films opened with more than $50 million each on the same weekend.

Dropping from first to third place was the action-comedy remake of the TV show Get Smart, with an estimated $20 million in its second weekend for a total gross of $77.3M in its first ten days for Warner Bros. Previous first-placer Kung Fu Panda dropped to fourth place against its animated rival, with an estimated $11.7 million in ticket sales last week. The film has scored $179.3 million for Paramount and DreamWorks.

The top ten films grossed an estimated $175.9 million, which was up 24% from last year when Ratatouille opened in the top spot with $47 million.

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