Pixar's 'Wall-E' robot rolls into first place

Tag : Wall Box
The G-rated movie, which was produced for an estimated $180million, is the ninth consecutive commercial and critical hit forPixar Animation Studios, creator of "Cars," the "Toy Story" filmsand "The Incredibles," the 2004 movie that had the biggest openingof all Pixar entries with $70.5 million.

All nine have bested the competition in their opening weekends.

"Wall-E" and 11 other top-grossing movies brought in $179.2 millionin ticket sales over the weekend, up 22% from the same time lastyear, according to box-office tracker Media by Numbers,underscoring Hollywood's resilience even as the economy sputtersand gas prices soar.

Box-office revenue climbed for the fifth consecutive weekend and isup 6% for the summer season compared with last year, said Media byNumbers President Paul Dergarabedian.

"The box office is incredibly robust right now," Dergarabedian saidSunday, noting that sales have surpassed last year's record levels."Historically, films do well when times are tough, when going tothe movies is an inexpensive way to forget about your troubles.This is a perfect example of that."

The premiere for "Wall-E" also gives a welcome boost to Disney,which acquired Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion and has beenstruggling this year at the box office compared with its peers, inpart because of the lackluster showing for "The Chronicles ofNarnia: Prince Caspian."

The movie hasn't matched the huge success of the 2005 release "TheLion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

"It was a sensational weekend," said Chuck Viane, Disney'sdistribution president. "This will help put us back in thebox-office race."

The latest Disney-Pixar installment is a love story about how awalking trash compactor left behind when humans flee theover-polluted planet falls for another robot named Eve.

The computer-animated film directed by Andrew Stanton faced somepotential hurdles, including the fact that the robots barely speak.But the movie benefited from strong reviews and had broad appealwith children and adults, Viane said.

"Wall-E himself is such a lovely character," Viane said of thelove-struck robot.

The film managed to surpass Angelina Jolie's assassin thriller"Wanted," which debuted in second place with $51.1 million inticket sales.

Time Warner Inc.'s "Get Smart" dropped from first to third withsales of $20 million, while "Kung Fu Panda," the animated comedyproduced by DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., slipped from second tofourth with $11.7 million in sales.

Marvel Entertainment Inc.'s "The Incredible Hulk" landed in fifthplace with $9.2 million.

richard.verrier@latimes.com