'Finding Dory' Has Historic Opening Weekend With $136.2 Million

Image via screenrant.com

Finding Dory continues Disney's domination of the box office, making $136.2 million and setting the record for biggest domestic opening of all time for an animated film. The sequel to Finding Nemo also holds second place for the largest opening in the month of June, only behind Jurassic World. Finding Dory amassed $55 million on Friday, and then dropped an average of $10 million throughout the weekend. Performance in the international box office wasn't lacking either as the film posted a $186.2 million opening in 32% of the global market. It has since become the biggest Pixar showing in China and Australia. The film will continue to open throughout the summer and fall which only means one thing for the studio: success.

In a year of Disney dominance, which included Zootopia, The Jungle Book and Captain America: Civil War, Finding Dory will be no different. When a film as popular as Finding Nemo was back in 2003, there was no doubt that the opening weekend for this film was going to be big, but the question was, how big? Estimates from various film critics and personalities had it at just over $100 million and others even under that. This historic showing was definitely unexpected, but not surprising, given that Pixar very rarely misses the mark with its films.

The year will still have a heavy Disney presence in the fall, seeing the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Doctor Strange, slated for release on November 4th, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on December 16th. I think these films will far exceed the $100 million threshold, Rogue One having the best chance to cross $200 million. When all is said and done, 2016 will be the year of Disney dominance.