A lonesome little robot outshined Hollywood queen Angelina Jolie over the weekend as WALL-E, the new Disney/Pixar film, grossed $62.5 million to top the weekend box office . Jolie’s assassin thriller ‘Wanted’ opened in second place with collections of $51.1 million, according to Exhibitor Relations estimates.

Ironically, industry insiders were skeptical about the impression of WALL•E, a post-apocalyptic love story between robots who are left on a garbage-strewn, abandoned Earth. It was being considered the animation studio's toughest sell.

However, it became the studio's ninth straight No. 1, debuting at about $10 million higher than projected and marking a tie for Pixar’s third biggest opening. In addition, it won recommendations from 96 percent of the nation’s critics, making it one of the best-reviewed movies of the year.

The makers insist that the animated WALL-E is not only for children. More than 20 percent of the audience was adults without children, says Chuck Viane of Disney, which distributed the film. Pixar "doesn't just make family films. These are movies that appeal across the board."

Although figures favor WALL-E, Angelina Jolie’s ‘Wanted’ was a superior film. Debuting at about 800 fewer theaters than WALL-E, Jolie’s action film outdid the animated movie, by nearly $500 per screen. ‘Wanted’ beat predictions by $11 million.

The two movies together kept Hollywood on a roll. The top 12 movies took in $179.2 million, up 22 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when Pixar's ‘Ratouille’ had brought in $47 million at its opening.

Revenues climbed for the fifth straight weekend. The earnings are up 6 percent over last year for the summer season that began May 2, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

Bert Livingston of 20th Century Fox says a struggling economy may be the advancing force behind overall business. "People simply aren't traveling as much, and movies are still the cheapest form of entertainment," he says. "I wish the stock market were doing as well as we are."