‘Finding Dory’ Makes History With Largest-Ever Animation Debut In US

The aquatic adventure story earned $136.2 million at the domestic box office (that’s double the amount of the original film, Finding Nemo) and became the biggest animated USA opening of all time. The movie is yet to release in many other worldwide regions, including France and Spain, which is expected to open coming weekend, before expanding across the globe throughout this year.

The Pixar-Disney work Finding Dory is officially the most successful opening of an animated film in USA box-office history. The comedy – which returns the popular Ellen DeGeneres as the voice of Dory – received a positive 78 on MetaCritic; a score of 95 percent “fresh” on RottenTomatoes; and a CinemaScore of A. After all, it had been 13 years since its predecessor, “Finding Nemo”, an eternity in family-film and franchise terms.

Family audiences turned out in droves over the weekend, propelling Finding Dory to a massive $US136 million debut and establishing a new record for an animated film opening. The animated movie set the box office record, amassing $136 million for the giant media company domestically, which didn’t come as a surprise, as per the report by Bloomberg.

Finding Dory seems destined to join those films among 2016’s top earners, partly because it is appealing to all age groups.

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 film marks Pixar’s biggest opening ever in China ($17.5 million), behind “Zootopia”, and the biggest Disney-Pixar opening weekend ever in Australia ($7.6 million).

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to comScore.

It took Pixar 13 years to make a follow up to Finding Nemo. We are as excited as you to see what happens in the weeks to come.

Rounding out the top five were “Now You See Me 2”, with $9.7 million, and “Warcraft”, with $6.5 million.

Still, Dergarabedian notes that the comparatively big audiences this weekend are good for the business in the long run since they’ll be exposed to trailers for upcoming summer films.

Pixar’s favorite character with short-term memory loss gets her very own movie.