Yes, there is. My preference is to use parallel processes whenever I can because I understand them better. Autorun tends to disagree with a lot of events in my experience. I did it this way, but others may have a better understanding of how events work and may be able to give you a "cleaner" meathod, but here's mine:
You'll need two events, a starter and the guts. The starter is a paralell proc which states what dialogue the character has, and the move route to the box. It also triggers a switch, call it "open box", which starts the opening of the box. Next, make the box. It's important to make the event by hand rather than using the quick event creation, but you could use one as reference. The box should be just a box graphic on the map, no instructions on the page. Page two should have the same box graphic but with the condition set as switch:"open box". On this page, follow the method for standard treasure boxes- you know, the animation, sounds, contents, etc. This same event's THIRD page is set to condition: self switch A, and the graphic is the open chest; the instructions are to turn on a switch we'll call "box over". The FoURTH page is a graphic of an open chest, set to condition: "box over" on. It can include any dialogue you need, but must contain self switch B on. On the FIFTH and fiinal page of this event, condition Self switch B on and an open chest graphic. This lets the chest sit there as opposed to disappearing if we were to erase the event. In this event, we set all triggers to parallel process except for the last page which can be action button.
Now go back to the first event. In a second page, simply set condition: "open box" switch on. That's it. This is so we can continue using parallel process without repeating any part of this event's sequence, which may include movement, dialogue- I don't know, it's all up to you... Anyway, the last step is to make a third page for this "starter" event. It's condition is "chest over" on, and the instructions are to erase the event. What does all this do? It makes your character walk to the box, open it and recieve the contents, and then disposes of all processes. It also leaves an open box, just like if the player had opened one. Now you can even reenter the map at a later time and everything will be as you left it.