After a brief setback with “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Disney is back to its record-smashing ways this weekend as “The Incredibles 2”…
After a brief setback with “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Disney is back to its record-smashing ways this weekend as “The Incredibles 2” posted the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated film with $180 million. That beat the previous record, $135 million by fellow Pixar sequel “Finding Dory,” by a whopping 33 percent.
At this level, “The Incredibles 2” is being compared not to other animated films, but to other superhero films, namely their Marvel Studios brethren in the Disney stable. If “Incredibles 2” were a Marvel movie, this opening would rank fifth, topping the likes of “Iron Man 3,” “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” and “Captain America: Civil War.”
The only Marvel films with a bigger start than “Incredibles 2” are “Black Panther” and the three “Avengers” films. In fact, “Incredibles 2” now joins “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War” as the third Disney release in 2018 to earn one of the top ten biggest domestic openings in box office history. Incredibles has taken over the No. 8 spot from “Civil War,” with “Black Panther” in sixth with $201 million and “Infinity War,” of course, atop the list with $257.6 million.
With such a strong opening, it’s clear that “Incredibles 2” has found an audience well beyond the families that are Pixar’s target demographic. It’s been 14 years since the first “Incredibles” came out, meaning that millennials who saw that film as kids are now flocking back to theaters to see the sequel. Disney reports that 40 percent of audiences were ages 16 and under, while ages 17-35 accounted for 36 percent.
With such large four-quadrant appeal, we will see whether “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” will have to compete with “Incredibles 2” for general audiences when it opens in the U. S. next week. In terms of reception, “Fallen Kingdom” will have a tough time topping “Incredibles 2,” which has a 94 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and is the seventh Pixar film to earn an A+ on CinemaScore.
Far below Pixar on the charts, Warner Bros. takes second and third with Village Roadshow’s “Ocean’s 8” taking No. 2 with $19.5 million in its second weekend. That’s a solid result for the “Ocean’s” spinoff, with a drop-off of 53 percent and a ten-day domestic total of $79.1 million.
In third is New Line’s new comedy “Tag,” which posted a decent opening with $14.6 million from 3,386 screens. By comparison, New Line’s last comedy, “Game Night,” opened to $17 million and had a 4x multiple with $68 million made domestically and $117 million worldwide. Audiences gave the film a B+ on CinemaScore, with critics giving it 57 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Solo” is in fourth this weekend with $9.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $191 million; while “Deadpool 2” completes the top five with $8.6 million. The Marvel sequel will become only the fifth R-Rated film to gross $300 million domestically this coming week.
Outside the top five is A24’s “Hereditary,” which earned a solid 50 percent hold from its studio record $13 million opening. With $6.8 million, the Ari Aster horror film now has a ten-day total of just under $27 million.
In seventh is Columbia’s “Superfly,” which has hit the lower end of tracking with an $8.2 million opening over five days. Released on 2,200 screens, the film has a 54 percent RT score and a B+ on CinemaScore.
Finally, there’s Vertical/MoviePass Ventures’ “Gotti,” which was released on 503 screens and grossed $1.6 million, falling outside the top ten for the weekend. Withheld from critics, the John Travolta film only has 21 reviews logged on Rotten Tomatoes with all being negative, giving the film a rare zero percent rating on the Tomatometer.
Read original story ‘Incredibles 2’ Joins Top 10 All-Time Box Office Openings With $180 Million At TheWrap
