In what has become a great year for animated features, Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot made a splash in the weekend box office, earning $35M domestically. This makes the film the 15th-strongest domestic debut of the year so far, wedged between Alien: Romulus ($42M) and IF ($33.7M). The Wild Robot joins the ranks of Inside Out 2 ($155M), Despicable Me 4 ($75M), and Kung Fu Panda 4 ($57M) for the best-performing box office performances from animated features in 2024, per Cinema Blend.

However, The Wild Robot stands out as an original I.P. in a field dominated by sequels and reboots. The film also made $18M in the foreign market, tallying about $53M total for the global weekend debut. Chris Sanders wrote and directed The Wild Robot, and it has debuted to positive critical and audience reception, with Rotten Tomatoes scores sitting at 98% in both categories.

The Wild Robot is only the second film to take the No. 1 spot this September, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s reign ending after three weeks at the top. The Beetlejuice sequel pulled $16M this weekend, earning No. 2 on the weekend rankings. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has now made about $250M, placing sixth for domestic performances in 2024 behind Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters. It sits at $373M worldwide.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis debuted at No. 6, earning $4M against a reported budget of $120M. After many years of development and a cast including Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Shia Labeouf, and Laurence Fishburne, the reception has been varied. Playing on just 1,854 screens, the film is a surrealist vision from one of cinema’s most celebrated directors, a trait that has made it polarizing for many viewers.

Joker Folie à Deux will debut this week, echoing the $1B success of the Todd Phillips’ directed Joker which premiered in 2019. The current top ten box office performers from the weekend of 9/27-9/29 include:

1. The Wild Robot- Weekend: $35,000,000, Domestic: $35,000,000
2. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice- Weekend: $16,040,000, Domestic: $250,133,000
3. Transformers One- Weekend: $9,300,000, Domestic: $39,164,000
4. Devara Part 1- Weekend: $5,600,000, Domestic: $5,600,000
5. Speak No Evil- Weekend: $4,300,000, Domestic: $28,140,000
6. Megalopolis- Weekend: $4,000,000, Domestic: $4,000,000
7. Deadpool & Wolverine- Weekend: $2,657,000, Domestic: $631,257,109
8. My Old Ass- Weekend: $2,224,159, Domestic: $2,851,474
9. Never Let Go- Weekend: $2,200,000, Domestic: $8,252,523
10. The Substance- Weekend: $1,806,160, Domestic: $6,865,275