That’s not a resounding endorsement for director Jake Szymanski’s freshman feature length theatrical release, but it’s enough to avoid being labelled a box office failure.
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Pets has opened to a massive $103.2 million (£79.7 million) in the U.S., while Inside Out opened to $90.4 million (£69.8 million) past year. Both are heading for weekends of around $20 million.
“Finding Dory” was third, with $20.4 million in weekend sales and $422.6 million in domestic sales over 24 days.
The sequel to the 2003 hit Finding Nemo earned US$135.1 million its debut weekend, and experts project the comedy will hit US$1 billion this summer.
“If any pets were wondering what their owners were doing this weekend, they were seeing this movie”, says comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, adding that Secret Life “overperformed massively”, thanks to a great title and an irresistible concept.
The Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures film cost only $75 million to produce, and features the voices of Louis C.K. and Kevin Hart. It’s another strong entry in the animated sector, which has been a key contributor to keeping the overall business healthy this year with “Dory”, Disney’s “Zootopia”, Sony’s “The Angry Birds Movie” and Fox’s “Kung Fu Panda 3”.
The raunchy “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates”, starring Efron, Adam DeVine, Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza, is performing slightly better than forecasts.
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Even with the drop, Dory this weekend surpassed Captain America: Civil War to become the top film of 2016 in America, with its $423 million (£326.7 million) in grosses.
