“The Secret Life of Pets” Pounces on the Competition

BOX OFFICE REPORT

July 8-10, 2016

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

The Secret Life of Pets  $103.1 million
The Legend of Tarzan $20.6 million
Finding Dory $20.3 million
Mike and Dave
Need Wedding Dates 
$16.6 million
The Purge: Election Year  $11.7 million

Never underestimate the power of adorable animated animals. It's now been a straight month since a live-action movie starring humans has held the top spot. The Secret Life of Pets was always expected to win the weekend, but not to be this big. $103.1 million is a massive opening for a non-sequel, especially one that doesn't hail from Disney. That's the second biggest animated opening this year, even bigger than The Angry Birds Movie or Zootopia.

The Legend of Tarzan held decently after debuting strongly last weekend, far better than its competition. It should cross $100 million by next weekend, but that's not so hot considering its hefty price tag and so-so international returns thus far – though it still has several major territories to open in. The Purge: Election Year fell much harder.

Finding Dory dropped to No. 3, but became the highest-grossing movie of 2016. Its just a few bucks shy of the No. 2 animated movie of all time (The Lion King) and will definitely unseat Shrek 2 before the end of the summer. In its fourth weekend, that was still enough to hold off Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. The raunchy comedy had an OK debut, but didn't cost that much to make. Fox can consider that a win.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Captain Fantastic, the family dramedy starring Viggo Mortensen. The second feature from Silicon Valley's Matt Ross averaged $24,613 on its four screens.
  • Sultan, a wrestling drama from India, debuted at No. 10 with $2.2 million. Let this serve as a semi-annual reminder that there's a majorly underserved Indian audience in America.
  • Here is the complete list of Steven Spielberg movies that have made less than The BFG: 1941, Empire of the Sun and his theatrical debut The Sugarland Express. That's it. Even Always, his maligned remake of A Guy Named Joe, has earned more money at this point. And it was hardly a major blockbuster. It will probably end up making more than Munich ($47.4 million), but won't even come close to Bridge of Spies ($72.3 million), which isn't even in his top 20. And that's even before you adjust for ticket price inflation. Doing that puts The BFG at the very bottom.

Next week:

It's do-or-die as the most talked-about movie (on the internet, at least) finally sees the light of day: Paul Feig's female-centric reboot of Ghostbusters. It's really hard to tell exactly how big it will debut. There are plenty of foul men online who are already refusing to see the film on "principle," but those guys are few and far between. The more pressing question will be: How many people want to see a reboot of the original film period? This year has proven that there's not a big appetite for a lot of sequels, or at least not as big as there used to be. So I'll hedge my bets and say this will be the biggest debut yet for both director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy with around $55 million. Unfortunately, that won't be enough to unseat The Secret Life of Pets, which will stay No. 1 with around $60 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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