Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE:DIS) long-awaited sequel, “Finding Dory”, hit the theaters this weekend.
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The Short Term Memory Loss Dory smashed U.S. box office records and reached to $136,183,170 (USA) on 17 June 2016.
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.
Some 13 years after Finding Nemo’s’ first hit theaters, Pixar and Disney’s sequel Finding Dory made a enormous splash at the box office, landing the biggest domestic opening of all time for an animated title. The movie has remained one of the more popular Pixar movies, which means that when fans learned there would be a sequel, it was clear that there would be plenty of people lining up to see Finding Dory. And despite its poor critical showing, X-Men: Apocalypse has actually done quite well financially; even at an estimated $5.2 million weekend bringing in $146.1 million in the domestic box office, worldwide it is the third highest grossing film of the franchise.
Like “Nemo”, “Dory” stars Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks, with actors including Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, and Diane Keaton coming aboard for the new film.
Dory sets off to find her family and of course meets a colorful gang of supporting characters along the way.
The plot follows her quest to be reunited with her long-lost parents.
In a recent petition requesting Disney run a PSA before the movie stressing the importance of protecting the Blue Tang, creator Kelsey Bourgeois noted that “Finding Dory” has researchers panicking.
It is also the second-largest June opening of all time, behind Jurassic World.
Disney Executive Vice President of Distribution Dave Hollis was particularly heartened that the film did such robust late-night business on Friday and Saturday.
Central Intelligence, pairing Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart on the big screen for the first time, earned an A- CinemaScore and skewed slightly female (51 percent).
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Rounding out the top five were “Now You See Me 2”, with $9.7 million, and “Warcraft”, with $6.5 million.
