Box office: Pets, Dory set new records for animated films

A couple of animated films set a few new records at the box office this week.

First, The Secret Life of Pets made an estimated $103.2 million between Thursday and Sunday nights, which is the biggest opening ever for an original animated film (previous champ: last year’s Inside Out, which opened to $90.4 million).

The film also had the sixth-biggest opening of any animated movie ever, behind four sequels (Finding Dory, Shrek 2 + 3, Toy Story 3) and one prequel (Minions).

Second, Finding Dory grossed $20.4 million in its fourth week and raised its domestic total to $422.6 million, which makes it the top-grossing Pixar movie ever in North America (ahead of Toy Story 3, which grossed $415 million in 2010).

Finding Dory is currently neck-and-neck with The Lion King (which grossed $422.8 million between 1994 and 2011) for the title of top-grossing animated Disney movie in North America. Once it passes that film, it will be second only to Shrek 2 (which earned $441.2 million for DreamWorks back in 2004) on the all-time animated list.

Finding Dory’s rise up the charts has been a little slower overseas, where it has earned $220.2 million so far but has yet to be released in certain key markets, like Japan.

Finding Dory has also passed Captain America: Civil War to become the top-grossing movie of the year in North America, though it is still only sixth worldwide.

Interestingly, both Dory and Pets feature Albert Brooks as one of their co-stars.

The other new wide release this week was Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, an R-rated comedy that grossed $16.6 million and landed in fourth place.

Meanwhile, in other box-office news…

The Legend of Tarzan earned $20.6 million and ranked second in its second week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $81.4 million. The film has earned another $54 million overseas for a global total of $135.4 million.

The Purge: Election Year earned $11.7 million and ranked fifth in its second week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $58.1 million. The film has earned another $2.2 million overseas for a global total of $60.3 million.

Central Intelligence earned $8.1 million and ranked sixth in its fourth week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $108.3 million. The film has earned another $47.9 million overseas for a global total of $156.2 million.

Independence Day: Resurgence earned $7.7 million and ranked seventh in its third week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $91.5 million. The film has earned another $214.3 million overseas for a global total of $305.8 million.

The BFG earned $7.6 million and ranked eighth in its second week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $38.7 million. The film has earned another $11.9 million overseas for a global total of $50.6 million.

The Shallows earned $4.8 million and ranked ninth in its third week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $45.8 million. The film has earned an extra $85,977 in Thailand but does not seem to have been released in any other countries yet.

Now for a bit of extra data on the year’s top-grossing animated films:

In North America, Finding Dory now ranks third (and Zootopia still ranks ninth):