Finding Dory has become the highest-grossing animated debut of all time. But the film’s stellar debut makes it the top animated film opening weekend ever – a title previously held by 2007’s “Shrek the Third”, from Paramount, which took in $121.6 million in its debut. Yet it is a far different matter at the box office, as the sequel not only almost doubled the opening weekend of Nemo but shattered the all-time opening weekend record for an animated movie.
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The sequel blew away the competition, including “Central Intelligence”, a comedy with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart that also was new in theaters this weekend.
Meet Baby Dory in this adorable new clip from “Finding Dory” that was released by Pixar.
Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen & Co., estimated that of the 15 sequels released this year, on average they will finish down 37 percent in nominal box office returns from their predecessor film.
The success of Finding Dory comes at a good time for Pixar as they come off the disappointment of last year’s The Good Dinosaur.
With help from Nemo and Marlin, Dory the forgetful fish embarks on a quest to reunite with her mother and father.
In 2003 when Finding Nemo was released it opened to $70.3 million. Deftly navigating the complex inner workings of the MLI, Dory and her friends discover the magic within their flaws, friendships and family. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, “Finding Dory” could also be the biggest of the summer. The movie, starring Ellen DeGeneres, reportedly did well with adults as well as families.
Finding Nemo is estimated to have taken $339.7 million overall and was previously one of the highest grossing Pixar films. That’s looking like a solid enough hit, and tells a very different story to the middling critical reviews of the film.
James Wan’s horror flick The Conjuring 2 fell 42 per cent in its second week, bringing its total gross to $7.2 million.
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According to ComScore, women made up 62% of the movie’s audience.
