Weekend box office: Finding Dory has the biggest animated opening of all time

Brad Sturdivant June 19th, 2016

It’s easy to be disappointed in Pixar for churning out sequels to their popular films, but it’s hard to argue with the reasons why they keep making them. FINDING NEMO isn’t even their most popular film and it’s one that didn’t really need a sequel, but it now has the largest weekend box office opening ever for an animated film, besting SHREK THE THIRD’s $121 million opening by $20 million. Given the lukewarm critical reaction to FINDING DORY, (click the link to read our review) that’s pretty impressive. It’s also a sign that virtually every Pixar film is going to get at least one sequel. The other new movie of the weekend was the Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart team up movie, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, which opened nicely with $33 million. I don’t know if it was because of The Rock or Hart, but both of these guys are on a roll when it comes to box office success.

Next week belongs to INDEPENDENCE DAY RESURGENCE. I’m not sure how to predict ID4-2’s opening, because I’m not sure the original was strong enough to carry a sequel 20 years later. We also get THE SHALLOWS, starring Blake Lively, which looks like it could be fun, but it doesn’t deserve a mid-summer opening. It feels much more like an early Spring or late Summer type of film. Finally, we get Matthew McConaughey starring in THE FREE STATE OF JONES. Jones looks decent enough, but the marketing for it has been pretty scarce. It’s another film that probably shouldn’t have gotten a summer release. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.

1. Finding Dory $141.1m

2. Central Intelligence $33.6m

3. The Conjuring 2 $17.2m

4. Now You See Me 2 $9.6m

5. Warcraft $6.5m

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows $5.5m

7. X-Men: Apocalypse $5.2m

8. Me Before You $4.4m

9. Alice Through the Looking Glass $4.2m

10. Captain America: Civil War $2.2m

(Deadline)