While many of the box office headlines on Monday are focused on Joker: Folie à Deux’s record-breaking second-weekend decline, another interesting tidbit has emerged — and it’s a strong testament to the reliability of animated movies.
As first spotted by Cartoon Brew, animated films make up half of the 10-highest-grossing movies domestically for this past weekend. Those movies are The Wild Robot at #2 ($13.4 million), Piece by Piece at #5 ($3.8 million), Transfomers One at #6 ($3.6 million), My Hero Academia: You’re Next at #8 ($3 million), and the re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas at #9 ($2.3 million).
Barring some very deep-cut piece of box office history we’re missing, it looks like this is the first time this has ever happened. What’s interesting, too, is the variety of animated movies making up this historic first: a DreamWorks critical darling with strong word of mouth, a Pharrell Williams LEGO biopic, a CGI origin story of a long-running franchise, an anime tentpole, and a re-release of a decades-old classic.
It also continues what’s been a strong year for animation at the box office, as Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 currently stands at the highest-grossing movie of 2024 with a stunning $1.6 billion. The Wild Robot, meanwhile, has been showing strong staying power. It’s grossed $148 million worldwide after three weekends, with director Chris Sanders recently confirming to Deadline that a sequel is in the works.
Still, even as animation continues to be a behemoth at the box office, the industry faces trouble behind the scenes. Major studios like Pixar and DreamWorks have faced layoffs over the past year, and IGN has our own report about the tumultuous making of Inside Out 2. Warner Bros., meanwhile, has seemingly completely scrapped animated movie Coyote vs. Acme, leading to controversy among fans and the industry alike.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
