Off to a swimming start, Pixar’s Finding Dory appears posed to break a box office milestone in its first weekend of release. The sequel to the massively popular Finding Nemo (2003) may earn as much as $134 million this weekend, giving the summer box office a much needed bit of firepower after a few weeks of disappointing returns. That figure would also be the largest opening weekend on record for an animated feature.
The well-reviewed sequel which finds the forgetful blue tang fish Dory (voiced again by Ellen DeGeneres) on a search for her parents earned an estimated $9.2 million alone off of Thursday night previews and is tracking for about $53 million total on its opening day, nearly ensuring it will break Shrek the Third‘s long-standing record for the highest opening weekend for a toon – that film, released nine years ago, earned $121 million. Last year’s Minions comes in second with $115 million and Pixar’s Toy Story 3 is currently third with $110 million.
This take is more coin for Pixar’s parent Disney, who has been on a killer ride this year following the massive success of Zootopia, The Jungle Book and Captain America: Civil War (currently the highest grossing film of the year with $400 million earned so far) – Disney did have turkey with the recently released Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Check back in on Sunday to see how high Finding Dory will soar.
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