Waiting 13 years before movies clearly paid off for Andrew Stanton and Pixar, as Finding Dory, the fishy follow-up to 2003's Finding Nemo, has already become one of the animation team's most successful films, kicking off with $136.1 million a the US box office according to estimates.
That makes it the biggest launch for a Pixar film, taking the record from Toy Story 3, and beats the record for a CG animated film from any company, ahead of DreamWorks' Shrek The Third. And the underwater adventure also did well in its initial release overseas, earning $50 million outside the US, with several key markets still to release. Boasting an "A" CinemaScore rating, Dory should keep swimming for a while.
Looking to take in the rest of the audience, the Dwayne Johnson/Kevin Hart action comedy Central Intelligence opened strong with $34.5 million, which is a solid start for a film that cost $50 million to make and enjoyed a social boost from its stars' online presence. It's another movie that still has plenty of overseas business to do, so it should perform well in the coming weeks, and is a healthy launch for a non-sequel film that isn't based on some other property.
The Conjuring 2 was pushed down to thirds, and dropped 61% for $15.5 million, while Now You See Me 2 slipped to fourth on $9.6 million.
At fifth, Warcraft lost 73% of its business, earning $6.5 million, but is still doing well in China, with its worldwide total at $377.6 million.
At sixth was X-Men: Apocalypse, sliding one place and earning $5.21 million, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows dropped a couple of places to seventh with $5.2 million, so those two could trade places when the final tallies arrive. Eighth was Me Before You, taking in $4.1 million, ahead of Alice Through The Looking Glass, which continues to underperform, falling to ninth with $3.6 million and $69.3 million in total in the States. Still, there's better Disney news with Captain America: Civil War, which dropped to 10th and $2.2 million, but has earned more than $401 million in the US alone across a seven-week run to date.