WILD ROBOT’s Massive Success Proves This
By Movieguide® Contributor
Universal’s WILD ROBOT found huge success at the box office, a trend the studio is familiar with.
The film began its first week at $35 million, and its total take is now $111 million domestically and $232 million globally after four weeks in theaters, Variety reported.
READ MORE: HOW WILD ROBOT MAKES PARENTHOOD’S ‘SURPRISES AND UNKNOWNS’ RELATABLE
“The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot — ROZZUM unit 7134, ‘Roz’ for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling,” Universal’s synopsis reads.
Movieguide® praised its portrayal of “motherly love.”
WILD ROBOT is a very special movie. It delightfully affirms motherly love. Also, Roz the robot clearly has Christological, allegorical elements. She teaches the animals to love one another and clearly dies and appears to clearly resurrect. That said, her major characteristic is learning to overcome her cold, pre-programmed nature to develop a loving heart. When the company tries to re-program her, the heart takes over, but that’s not the end of the story. There are many animated action violence situations in WILD ROBOT, including animals consuming one another to survive. However, none of these situations are cruel or violent in a scary, troubling way. So, MOVIEGUIDE® recommends WILD ROBOT for children aged six and up. Adults also will love this story, if they have a heart.
READ MORE: THE WILD ROBOT REVIEW
Other Universal movies, including PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, MIGRATION, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE and more, have all performed well at the box office over the last few years.
“It starts and ends with content. The common thread is these are quality films,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s domestic distribution chief.
He’s right. Content is key, and all these movies honor family-friendly values. In fact, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE and PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH both won Movieguide® Teddy Bear Awards®.
As Movieguide®’s 2023 Report to the Entertainment Industry explains, “family-friendly movies reflecting strong Christian, redemptive, moral, biblical, traditional, or conservative principles and values usually do significantly better at the box office in the United States and Canada than those movies that don’t have such strong content.”
“…it’s the quality of the product,” reiterated Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock. “Universal has consistently delivered the animated goods for decades. That stability has earned them a steadfast audience that previously only Disney’s Pixar could boast.”
If Universal wants to keep finding success at the box office, the studio should continue to uplift family-friendly stories.
