The Pixar sequel far surpassed its ocean-sized expectations to take in $136.2 million in North American theaters, making it the highest-grossing animated debut of all time, according to comScore estimates Sunday.
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Disney has another No. 1 film for the 11th time in 2016. That was a box-office weekend record for an animated film. It approached Fifty Shades of Gray for the second biggest second weekend drop of all time for a movie in over 3,000 theates, yet Gray at least made $85+ million in its opening first.
Per cinema, Finding Dory took in a whopping $US31,634 ($42,587) on average across more than 4000 United States cinemas, again breaking the previous animation box-office record set by Shrek the Third. However, they had estimated it would be much lower at around $100 million.
“With the new film “Finding Dory” coming out, researchers are seriously panicking”, she wrote.
The huge sum is a whole $15 million more than the now-dethroned Shrek the Third, which took $121.6 million in its first weekend of release in 2007. Some 95% of critics gave “Finding Dory” positive reviews, according to Rottentomatotes.com.
The lead-up to the release to Finding Dory has been long and drawn out but it’s finally here and it’s breaking records already!
Meanwhile, another strong weekend performer was Central Intelligence, opening at $34.1 million (£23.4m), a solid $4 million (£2.7) beyond predicted box office takings.
“The original movie is so beloved and a part of our culture, we’ve dubbed it ‘Generation Nemo, ‘” Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis said. China led the pack with a $17.5 million opening. The movie also brought in $50 million internationally.
The result is well beyond the amount predicted by both analysts and Pixar, who estimated Finding Dory would open to $US120 million ($161 million) and $US100 million ($134 million) respectively.
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Last weekend’s box office champ, New Line’s “The Conjuring 2”, slipped to third place. Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me 2” and Universal’s “Warcraft” rounded out the top five, grossing $US9.7 million and $US6.5 million, respectively.
