Family audiences turned out in droves over the weekend, propelling ‘Finding Dory’ to a massive $136.2 million debut - from 4,305 theaters - and establishing a new record for an animated film opening.
The sequel to 2003’s ‘Finding Nemo’ was bolstered by strong reviews and residual affection for the Oscar-winning first film. It is a return to form for Pixar after the animation studio behind ‘Toy Story’ and ‘The Incredibles’ suffered its first box office failure last year with ‘The Good Dinosaur’. But its decades of excellence continue to be the brand’s major selling points, Variety reported.
‘Finding Dory’ centers on a blue tang fish with short term memory loss and her quest to be reunited with her long-lost parents. Its opening weekend results sailed past the previous high-water mark for an animated film – ‘Shrek the Third’s $121.6 million launch in 2007 - and ranks as the second-best June debut, behind ‘Jurassic World’s (2015) $208.8 million bow. Overseas, ‘Finding Dory’ added another $50 million to its haul from 29 international markets making its $17.5 million debut rank as the biggest ever for a Pixar release.
The success of ‘Finding Dory’ comes as Disney, Pixar’s parent company, has dominated the movie business, fielding the year’s three highest-grossing pictures globally in ‘Zootopia’, ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War’. ‘Finding Dory’ seems destined to join those films among 2016’s top earners, partly because it is appealing to all age groups.
The feature animation injects some energy into a domestic box office that had been sluggish in recent weeks, as several high-profile films such as ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ and ‘Warcraft’ collapsed and sequels like ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ failed to match their predecessors’ receptions.
On the record front, on top of the animated opening weekend record, Dory broke the record for the largest single day and opening day for an animated film with its opening day totaling an estimated $54.9 million. Included in that opening day total is $9.2 million in Thursday previews, also a record for an animated feature.
