Never underestimate the power of Pixar seems to be the reining concept to take away from this weekend at the box office. Pixar's latest concoction, Finding Dory, the sequel to the studio's similarly successful Finding Nemo, is looking at a $73.5 million take in its second weekend, beating out Independence Day: Resurgence and two smaller openers, The Shallows and Free State of Jones. That would mean the film only lost approximately 46% of their audience on the second round, which is pretty impressive, even for a powerhouse like Pixar. Two weeks in, and Finding Dory is already the sixth highest grossing movie of 2016.
That would put the global box office of the animated comedy-adventure at $386.8 million, and the film is already primed to be Pixar's biggest opening in China to date. Meanwhile, Independence Day: Resurgence looks to come in with $41.6 million, which isn't a disaster by any means but still is on the lower side of expectations for the Roland Emmerich-helmed sequel to the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day. Forecasts had the movie coming in much closer to a $50 million weekend, but mind you, the film also took its place in the top ten openings of 2016, beating out Kung Fu Panda 3. Of course, the next weekend will be a more clear showing of just how short of expectations the sequel will ultimately fall, when it faces off with three promising properties: The BFG, The Purge: Election Year, and The Legend of Tarzan.
Finally, there's The Shallows and Free State of Jones, one superb B-movie and a passable, well-intentioned, but ultimately innocuous historical drama. The Shallows is coming in with $16.7 million, which nearly matches its budget, causing the shark vs. surfer thriller to land in fourth place behind Central Intelligence, which made $18.4 million in its second weekend for a combined box office of a little over $69 million. That would put Free State of Jones in fifth place with under $10 million domestically, proving once and for all that the absolute worst time to release any kind of major historical drama is the summer months.
1. Finding Dory $73,234,746 Total: $286.5 million
2. Independence Day: Resurgence $41,600,000 $41.6 million
3. Central Intelligence $18,370,000 $69.3 million
4. The Shallows $16,700,000 $16.7 million
5. Free State of Jones $7,772,000 $7.7 million
6. The Conjuring 2 $7,705,000 $86.9 million
7. Now You See Me 2 $5,650,000 $52 million
8. X-Men: Apocalypse $2,475,000 $151.1 million
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 $2,400,000 $77.1 million
10. Alice Through the Looking Glass $2,147,144 $74.5 million
