Pets licks rivals, breaks record

Actress Lake Bell provides the voice of Chloe, a fat cat who really loves food in Universal Pictures’ The Secret Life of Pets. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $104.4 million.
Actress Lake Bell provides the voice of Chloe, a fat cat who really loves food in Universal Pictures’ The Secret Life of Pets. It came in first at last weekend’s box office and made about $104.4 million.

LOS ANGELES -- Taking a bite out of the competition -- and a box office record -- The Secret Life of Pets, from Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures, pulled in about $104.4 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters. This is the sixth-biggest opening for any animated film.

Such a performance is far better than expected -- analysts projected $75 million, which still would have been an impressive opening. The film also pulled in $42.6 million internationally, and it still awaits an Aug. 2 debut in China.

"We're really happy," said Nick Carpou, Universal's domestic distribution chief. "It's a great turnout."

Secret Life's debut is also the biggest opening ever for an original film, animated or otherwise, supplanting last year's Inside Out ($90.4 million). Its historic performance has made it Universal's highest-grossing title of 2016 and Illumination's second-highest opening ever, behind last year's Minions.

Universal will release another Illumination title, Sing, in December, a film Carpou predicts will continue the animation studio's record.

Secret Life, which benefited from children being on summer break as well as a marketing campaign that courted adult animal lovers as well as children, is another welcome boost to an unpredictable year at the box office. Prior to the weekend, movies in the United States and Canada had grossed $5.6 billion this year, down 2.5 percent from the same time a year ago, according to the entertainment data firm comScore.

Hollywood is coming off a rocky Fourth of July weekend in which two big-budget movies performed poorly -- Warner Bros.' Legend of Tarzan and Disney's Steven Spielberg-directed The BFG.

But families have again generated reliably robust movie ticket sales this year, propelling Finding Dory to box-office dominance three weekends in a row. Last weekend, it fell to third with $20.8 million, but still has a domestic gross to date of $423 million. Internationally, the Finding Nemo sequel has pulled in $220.2 million.

Dory has surpassed Captain America: Civil War to become the top film of 2016 at the domestic box office.

Slightly inching out Dory over the weekend was Tarzan, which pulled in about $21 million in its second week. The live-action retelling of the classic tale dropped only 46 percent from its debut over the Fourth of July weekend for a total domestic gross to date of $82 million. This suggests that word of mouth has served the film well week to week.

Internationally, Tarzan has grossed only $54 million to date, but will open Tuesday in the largest international market, China. The film cost about $180 million to make.

The weekend's only other new wide release, the R-rated comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates from 20th Century Fox, landed in fourth place with about $17 million. This is significantly better than the $12 million to $14 million analysts projected the film would take in.

"The prognosticators had us as low as $10 million -- we never believed that -- but this has even exceeded our pre-release expectations," said Chris Aronson, the studio's domestic distribution chief. "This is a great result, and the party will continue on."

Mike and Dave stars Zac Efron and Adam Devine as hard-partying brothers who post an online ad to find their perfect female counterparts -- and get more than they bargain for when they meet characters played by Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza.

Although audiences gave the picture a B CinemaScore -- and those younger than 25 years old gave it a B-plus -- only 41 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics favored the picture.

Rounding out the top five was Universal's The Purge: Election Year, the third film in James DeMonaco's Purge series, produced by Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes. The third film, set in a futuristic United States where crime is legal for 12 hours each year, grossed about $12.4 million in its second week.

T0day is the premiere of the much talked about new Ghostbusters from Columbia Pictures, directed by Spy's Paul Feig. The reboot of the 1984 classic stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. It will be accompanied by a wide release of Broad Green Pictures' The Infiltrator starring Bryan Cranston.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

  1. The Secret Life of Pets, Universal, $104,352,905, 4,370 locations, $23,879 average, $104,352,905, one week.

  2. The Legend of Tarzan, Warner Bros., $21,006,462, 3,591 locations, $5,850 average, $81,804,174, two weeks.

  3. Finding Dory, Disney, $20,817,949, 3,871 locations, $5,378 average, $423,047,192, four weeks.

  4. Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, 20th Century Fox, $16,628,170, 2,982 locations, $5,576 average, $16,628,170, one week.

  5. The Purge: Election Year, Universal, $12,388,445, 2,821 locations, $4,392 average, $58,798,720, two weeks.

  6. Central Intelligence, Warner Bros., $8,031,386, 2,841 locations, $2,827 average, $108,231,724, four weeks.

  7. The BFG, Disney, $7,809,384, 3,392 locations, $2,302 average, $38,944,146, two weeks.

  8. Independence Day: Resurgence, 20th Century Fox, $7,779,531, 3,061 locations, $2,541 average, $91,575,113, three weeks.

  9. The Shallows, Columbia, $4,804,345, 2,406 locations, $1,997 average, $45,829,624, three weeks.

  10. Sultan, Yash Raj Films, $2,370,244, 283 locations, $8,375 average, $2,370,244, one week.

  11. The Conjuring 2, Warner Bros., $1,711,805, 1,052 locations, $1,627 average, $99,340,137, five weeks.

  12. Free State of Jones, STX Entertainment, $1,350,103, 1,264 locations, $1,068 average, $19,286,811, three weeks.

  13. Now You See Me 2, Lionsgate, $1,320,430, 864 locations, $1,528 average, $62,149,643, five weeks.

  14. Our Kind of Traitor, Roadside Attractions, $711,390, 399 locations, $1,783 average, $2,224,526, two weeks.

  15. Swiss Army Man, A24, $675,012, 600 locations, $1,125 average, $3,114,213, three weeks.

  16. Warcraft, Universal, $443,340, 228 locations, $1,944 average, $46,557,475, five weeks.

  17. Me Before You, Warner Bros., $416,197, 318 locations, $1,309 average, $54,802,331, six weeks.

  18. X-Men: Apocalypse, 20th Century Fox, $410,257, 288 locations, $1,425 average, $154,499,734, seven weeks.

  19. Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Orchard, $387,110, 72 locations, $5,377 average, $728,749, three weeks.

  20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Paramount, $320,880, 293 locations, $1,095 average, $80,404,681, six weeks.

MovieStyle on 07/15/2016

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