The Secret Life of Pets sinks Dory at the weekend box office
After reining as the box office champ for three weeks in a row, Pixar’s Finding Dory was taken down by another family animated feature, Illumination and Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets.
According to Box Office Mojo, Pets took in a whopping $103.17 million. This is the biggest opening ever for an original animated feature, beating out the record previously held by last year’s Inside Out.
The battle for second place was a close race between The Legend of Tarzan and Finding Dory. Tarzan ultimately came out on top, making an estimated $20.6 million. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film has done much better than initially anticipated, grossing roughing $81 million total at the domestic box office so far. Given its humongous budget of $180 million, however, Tarzan will need to hang in there to show a profit.
While Finding Dory dropped to third with $20.3 million, this was still a landmark weekend of the animated sequel. The film passed $422.5 million at the domestic box office, surpassing Captain America: Civil War as the biggest domestic release of 2016. At this rate, it should top Shrek 2 as the highest-grossing animated feature in US history. Can it possible take down Frozen at the worldwide box office, though?
Coming in forth was the R-rated comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, making a respectable $16.6 million. The film should gross around $40 overall, which will be enough to make the studio happy. Rounding out the top five was The Purge: Election Year, which made an estimated $11.7 million.
Check out the full weekend box office estimates below:
1. The Secret Life of Pets – $103,170,000
2. The Legend of Tarzan – $20,615,000
3. Finding Dory – $20,351,000
4. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates – $16,600,000
5. The Purge: Election Year – $11,700,000
6. Central Intelligence – $8,125,000
7. Independence Day: Resurgence – $7,700,000
8. The BFG – $7,604,000
9. The Shallows – $4,800,000
10. Sultan – $2,216,475