Weekend Box Office: Pets Domesticate The Competition

For the fourth consecutive week, an animated film has topped the box office. The difference is that Pixar’s Finding Dory has finally been defeated by an Illumination Studios newcomer. The Secret Life of Pets pulled in over $100 million during its debut weekend. Not only was it enough to take the top spot, it proved to be a historical haul. The total of $103 now gives Pets the distinction of the highest grossing opening weekend for an animated film (non-sequel). By pulling in an additional $40 million beyond analytical projections, Pets could very well be here to stay.

Despite a steep drop off, Finding Dory still clinched a spot in the top five. By raking in over $20 million, Finding Dory now boasts the highest domestic gross of the year. Besting superhero hits like Deadpool and Captain America: Civil War, animated films are proving themselves as box office kings. Disney was unable to replicate this success with The BFG. Spielberg’s film dropped from number four to number seven over the course of a single week. Two weeks into its wide release, The BFG has not even passed the $40 million mark domestically.

Last week’s second place holder, The Legend of Tarzan, claimed an identical spot this week. The man from the jungle swung into a profit of just over $20 million during the previous weekend. Combined with last week’s box office gross, it has made $81.4 million stateside. The jury is still out on foreign audiences, who may need to help it recuperate the $180 price tag.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, the other new release, finished in fourth place with $16.6 million. Starring Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick, it needs another respectable weekend to match its $33 million budget. Given the B score by audiences on Cinemascore, the word of mouth may be enough to do so. At the same time, the hard R rating restricts the potential audience. By comparison, 2005’s Wedding Crashers finished its domestic run with $285 million. The precedent has been set for R comedies to perform exceptionally well.

Closing out the top five this week is The Purge: Anarchy, which has grossed $61 million here in the states. Based on the mere $10 million budget, it has proven to be nothing but profit for Blumhouse Studios. Given this upcoming weekend’s competition, namely Ghostbusters, and The Infiltrator, many of these films may not have spots for long.

Ghostbusters opens July 15.