06/27/2008: "Wall•E headed off to a $60+M opening weekend"
According to Fantasy Moguls, Pixar’s perfectly-reviewed film is off to a meteoric start, much stronger than last year’s Ratatouille. The new animated masterpiece, already described by many critics as the likely winner of the next animation Oscar, will almost certainly top $20M on opening day. One source told the site $60M+ for the weekend and the other says that early numbers suggest $70M+ for the 3-day. If the movie exceeds $70.4M this weekend, it will become the all-time best Pixar opening, which will put it above such classics as The Incredibles ($70.4M), Finding Nemo ($70.2M) and Monsters, Inc. ($62.5M). By comparison DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda grossed $20.3M on its opening day and went on to gross $60.2M over the 3-day weekend.
