LOS ANGELES — The forgetful blue fish of “Finding Dory” is box office gold. The Pixar sequel far surpassed its already ocean-sized expectations to take in $136.2 million in North American theaters, making it the highest-grossing animated debut of all time, according to comScore estimates Sunday. The 2007 film “Shrek the Third” was the previous record-holder with a $121.6 million debut.
“Finding Dory,” which comes 13 years after “Finding Nemo” hit theaters, is also now the second-largest June opening of all time behind “Jurassic World.” The well-reviewed film features the voices of Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks and played particularly well with audiences, who gave the film an A CinemaScore – Pixar’s 17th film in a row to receive that impressive grade.
Going into the weekend, analysts expected “Finding Dory” to do big, $100 million-plus business, but never this much.
“The thought was could this be the movie to eclipse ‘Toy Story 3’s’ opening, not could it become the biggest animated opening of all time,” said Paul Dergarabedian, comScore’s senior media analyst. “That’s the power of the Pixar brand.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.