Kids and adults alike were glued to animated features in theaters this weekend. The animated films fought for space in the top 10 with seasonal horror entries like Terrifier 3, the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and the wildly underwhelming Joker: Folie a Deux. Despite lower expectations from animated features, these movies managed to showcase their box office appeal.
Here’s how the animated films performed, in order, by total domestic box office over the weekend of October 11.
| Place | Distributor | Total Gross |
| #2 The Wild Robot | Universal | $14,000,945 |
| #5 Piece By Piece | Focus Features | $3,851,355 |
| #6 Transformers One | Paramount Pictures | $3,763,855 |
| #8 My Hero Academia the Movie: You’re Next | Toho International | $3,007,027 |
| #9 The Nightmare Before Christmas | The Walt Disney Company | $2,419,235 |
The movie topping the charts is the recent entry to the Terrifier series, Terrifier 3 with $18,928,113 on a $2,000,000 budget. This is expected from a slasher flick released during the Halloween season. What is not expected however, is the healthy performance in the animated space. Especially that from The Wild Robot, which was released three weeks prior to little fanfare, but has gone up in the domestic charts since.
The Wild Robot is an adaptation of the children’s novel by the same name written by author Peter Brown, adapted to film by director and screenwriter David Sanders. It opened in third place on the weekend of September 27 to $23,100,000. Three weeks later it has moved up to second place in the weekend box office and it retains healthy earnings.
Piece By Piece is another anomalous film considering its subject matter. It is an autobiographical documentary directed by Morgan Neville about the pop music superstar Pharrell Williams, except it is entirely done in Lego. Additionally, the movie also has Lego appearances by some of music’s most recognizable names like Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake. The idea to animate the film in the Lego style was probably made to appeal to a younger audience and has may prove to be fruitful as it placed at number five this weekend with $3.800,000 on a $16,000,000 budget.
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Next, Transformers One has been regarded as a return to form for the Hasbro-owned Transformers franchise. Directed by Josh Cooley, Transformers One also returns in a somewhat familiar 3D animated form as well. It could be argued that there was franchise fatigue with seven live-action entries, but this successful revamp is evidence that moviegoers are still disposed to spending their weekend with Optimus Prime and the Autobots.
My Hero Academia: You’re Next could be considered the weakest performing movie of the lot. Opening domestically to $3,007,027, it is the latest film in the massive My Hero Academia anime and manga franchise. Seeing as there are limited releases of anime films in American theaters, it’s no surprise that this title has the lowest earnings. Not to mention the movie could be considered the only adult animated film presently in theaters with a PG-13 rating as it draws in the teen and young adult demographics.
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Lastly, The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Tim Burton seasonal classic broke into the top ten, beating out The Apprentice at # 10 and pushing out See No Evil at #11. The AMC theaters release of The Nightmare Before Christmas is proving to be a great move on Disney’s and AMC’s part, bringing in $2,419,235 a whopping 31 years after the initial release of the movie.
All in all it is difficult to discern why this phenomenon is occurring this weekend. It could be that an underwhelming fall lineup of movies with the likes of Speak No Evil, Saturday Night, and The Apprentice leads audiences to take a chance on an animated flick.
When the gore-filled R-rated slasher Terrifier 3 is number 1, there is space for family-friendly (or at the very least non-gorefest) movies to make moves at the box office. On the other hand, these animated movies have all been received well by critics and audiences alike. Perhaps rather than a mediocre fall lineup, we have a tight race at the box office with some grade-A animated movies.