Skip to footer

Absentminded fish sets box office record with new movie 'Finding Dory'

The Pixar sequel 'Dory' has set a new record for an opening weekend for an animated film. How did the movie achieve this success?

|
Pixar/Disney/AP
'Finding Dory' stars Ellen DeGeneres.

The Pixar sequel “Finding Dory” has set a new box office record, achieving the highest weekend opening ever for an animated movie without adjusting for inflation. 

“Dory” was released on June 17 and is a sequel to the 2003 animated film “Finding Nemo.” Like “Nemo,” “Dory” stars Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks, with actors including Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, and Diane Keaton coming aboard for the new film. 

The movie grossed more than $136 million domestically, topping the opening weekend gross of the 2007 animated movie “Shrek the Third.” 

Meanwhile, the new comedy “Central Intelligence,” which stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, came in second at the box office, grossing more than $34 million domestically. The horror movie “The Conjuring 2,” which opened on June 10, placed third, taking in more than $15 million. 

The magician movie “Now You See Me 2,” which also opened on June 10, placed fourth, grossing more than $9 million, while the game adaptation “Warcraft,” which opened the same week as "Now," came in fifth, grossing more than $6 million.

The massive performance of “Dory” shows that Pixar continues to have success in the summer. Last year, the studio released the movie “Inside Out,” which opened below the box office smash “Jurassic World” yet placed ahead of the dinosaur movie at the box office later on and became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. 

And while animated movies are most likely not viewed as only child’s entertainment any longer – Pixar has two Oscar Best Picture nominations under its belt – the summer is of course a time when children are not in school, and so parents may be looking for an activity for the kids. A new Pixar movie, especially a well-reviewed one – “Dory” has received mostly good notices from critics – seems to fit that bill. 

Affection for “Nemo” also no doubt helped propel “Dory” to its record. Upon its release, “Nemo” became a smash for Pixar and the film is still one of the studio’s highest-grossing ever.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Absentminded fish sets box office record with new movie 'Finding Dory'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0620/Absentminded-fish-sets-box-office-record-with-new-movie-Finding-Dory
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe