Tarzan came the closest to dethroning Dory with $US38.1 million with the BFG fourth with $US19.6 million.
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“Finding Dory” earned $13.4 million on Friday, a noteworthy feat given that it’s the animated movie’s third weekend at the box office.
The 180-million-dollar budget film received an “A-” from first-night moviegoers on CinemaScore.
It is on pace to surpass “Toy Story 3” and its $415 million haul as the highest-grossing Pixar film in history on a domestic basis.
BFG opened in Australia at the weekend, but local figures are not yet available.
Hell, had this been a standard three-day weekend, the number would have been even worse, as the film only earned $18.6 million through Sunday. Universal’s “The Purge: Election Year” debuted in third place to $30.9 million and should make $34 million over the holiday. Dory also crossed another milestone: becoming the second highest-grossing film of the year so far (just behind Captain America: Civil War, which muscled to $405.4 million earlier this summer). The film added another $42 million for the three days of the weekend which brings it to $372 million.
The continued success of “Dory”, however, bit into the similarly family-friendly “The BFG”, which debuted weakly with $19.6 million. This weekend was reminiscent of the Fourth of July box office past year, when new releases “Terminator: Genisys” and “Magic Mike XXL” fizzled as another three-week-old Pixar movie, “Inside Out”, topped the charts.
As expected, The Purge: Election Year was a box-office firecracker. I still believe this film is going to come in just above $100 million domestically. According to The New York Times, the two of the new movies that opened this weekend, arrived with a budget of almost $500 million and yet combined they were only able to bring in total ticket sales of approximately $57.7 million. Considering this cost $140 million, it’s starting to smell another box office flop for Disney (after Alice Through the Looking Glass).
In its second weekend of release, Fox’s “Independence Day: Resurgence” rounded out the top five, earning $16.5 million.
The third installment of the “Purge” series follows a police officer (Frank Grillo) who is tasked with protecting a senator who is running for president (Elizabeth Mitchell) while she is targeted for death after vowing to end the bloody ritual.
Rounding out the top 10 this weekend is Central Intelligence ($12.3 million), The Shallows ($9 million), Free State of Jones ($4.1 million), The Conjuring 2 ($3.8 million) and Now You See Me 2 ($2.9 million).
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On tap for the weekend look for new release The Secret Life of Pets to unseat Finding Dory and become your new #1.
