LOS ANGELES -
A lonely little movie robot made millions of friends during the weekend -- and even outgunned Angelina Jolie at the box office.
`WALL-E,' the Pixar Animation tale of a robot toiling away on a long-abandoned Earth, debuted as the No. 1 movie with $62.5 million in ticket sales at theatres in Canada and the United States.
Jolie's assassin thriller, `Wanted,' opened in second place with $51.1 million.
Studio estimates Sunday show the two movies combined to keep Hollywood on a roll. The top 12 films took in $179.2 million at the box office, up 22 per cent from the same weekend last year, when Pixar's `Ratouille' opened with $47 million.
The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, the Warner Bros. comedy `Get Smart,' slipped to third place with $20 million, raising its total to $77.3 million.
It was the fifth straight weekend that revenues climbed. According to box-office tracker Media By Numbers, revenues for the summer season that began May 2 are up six per cent over last year's record pace.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U-S and Canadian theateres, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
- "WALL-E," $62.5 million.
- "Wanted," $51.1 million.
- "Get Smart," $20 million.
- "Kung Fu Panda," $11.7 million.
- "The Incredible Hulk," $9.2 million.
- "The Love Guru," $5.4 million.
- "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," $5 million.
- "The Happening," $3.9 million.
- "Sex and the City," $3.8 million.
- "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," $3.2 million.
