The latest figures show that the weekend gross of Walt Disney’s animated film WALL-E added up to $63.1 million, toppling the Angelina Jolie-James McAvoy starrer “Wanted”, which made a not-so-measly $50.9 million over the weekend.

WALL-E was made by Pixar animation, the same team behind the huge box office successes like “Cars”, “Toy Story”, “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles”.

It tells the story of a wide-eyed robot who travels to outer space in search of a friend, right after the planet Earth becomes inhabitable.

(Please, let it download first, so that it does not keep stopping when playing)

So what’s the reason behind the surge of moviegoers during the weekend who flocked the theaters to watch these two entirely different movies?

The sour economy and high gas prices may be helping to fuel Hollywood‘s boom, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. Movies tend to thrive when times are tough because they are relatively cheap compared to sports events, concerts and other outings.

“Audiences are obviously gravitating toward the movies as their first choice for entertainment,” Dergarabedian said. “It doesn’t take that much gas to get to the local multiplex. That might have a little something to do with this, as well.”

- YAHOO Movies 

Hmm… that’s certainly a thought to ponder on. I haven’t been out of my desk working my buns off for the entire week. I may just go out to see both of these movies this weekend.