Finding Dory overwhelms Independence Day at the U.S. box office

Elsewhere this weekend, the Blake Lively-starring shark attack movie The Shallows took in $6.8 million on Friday and is estimated to end up with around $16 million for the weekend.

In a weekend full of ups and downs, the opening of “Independence Day” was the most closely watched debut. Given that Resurgence pulled in $41.6 million, it missed projections by about 20 percent.

Independence Day earned more than $500 million at the worldwide box office, marking one of the first major Hollywood blockbusters to do significantly more money overseas. Fox, perhaps smarting from the critical reaction to its recent release “X-Men: Apocalypse, ” took the unusual move of not screening the film for critics before release.

The expensive action flick reportedly cost around $165 million to produce, meaning the film will have to rely on foreign grosses to break even. That’s not a death sentence by any means: global grosses have kept films like Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass ($249 million worldwide) and Universal’s Warcraft ($412 million worldwide) afloat despite disappointing domestic grosses. If Finding Dory ousts Batman V Superman from the top spot before something else creeps in, Disney could potentially have a financial stake in all five of the year’s top films.

Will Smith did not return to battle the aliens second time round in the Independence Day sequel but Roland Emmerich was back in the director’s chair.

“Central Intelligence” was third at the box office, with $18.4 million. “Theres definitely been a pushback from audiences for numerous sequels, including ‘Independence Day.”With the lucrative July 4th holiday weekend coming up, theaters were jammed with almost every genre. It was Matthew McConaughey’s worst showing in years. The film also cost twice as much to make and is forecast to generate only half the domestic sales.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon, a twisted take on the modeling industry, was D.O.A.at the box office, opening to an estimated $606,594 from 783 locations.

Also making its debut in US theaters this weekend is “The Shallows”. With the gross to date earned on FINDING DORY, that now means that Pixar releases have grossed over 10 Billion dollars globally over 17 movies starting in 1995 with TOY STORY.

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