'Secret Life of Pets' outscores 'Dory' and box office records

In this image released by Universal Pictures, from left, characters Max, voiced by Louis C.K., Duke, voiced by Eric Stonestreet, and Katie, voiced by Ellie Kemper, appear in a scene from, "The Secret Lives of Pets."
In this image released by Universal Pictures, from left, characters Max, voiced by Louis C.K., Duke, voiced by Eric Stonestreet, and Katie, voiced by Ellie Kemper, appear in a scene from, "The Secret Lives of Pets."

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 an estimated $103.2 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada. 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, as it waits for 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."

It continues Illumination's unbroken streak of having all its films open No. 1 at the box office. Run by Chris Meledandri, the company has tapped into a profitable business model by focusing on animated films that generally cost much less to produce than the output of rivals such as Disney-owned Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, which was recently acquired by NBCUniversal for $3.8 billion.

The last Illumination offering, "Minions," grossed more than $1.1 billion worldwide after costing just $74 million to make, following up on the commercial success of the first two "Despicable Me" movies for which the animation studio is also responsible. "Secret Life" only cost about $75 million to make.

"I think it's a safe thing to say that Illumination is an absolute leading force to be akin to (major family-oriented animation studios)," Carpou said. "They just have this knack to deliver high-quality films within reasonable budget limits."

Featuring the vocal contributions of Louis C.K. as a Jack Russell terrier, Kevin Hart as a rabbit and Jenny Slate as a white Pomeranian, "Secret Life" envisions what pets do when their owners have left for the day. The comedy appears to have largely charmed critics and audiences. It received an A-minus CinemaScore, and 75 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics rated it positively.

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 U.S. and Canada had grossed $5.6 billion this year, down 2.5 percent from the same time a year ago.

Hollywood is coming off a rocky July Fourth 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. This weekend, it fell to third with $20.4 million, but still has a domestic gross to date of $422.6 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.

Slighting inching out "Dory" over the weekend was Warner Bros.' "The Legend of Tarzan," which pulled in an estimated $20.6 million in its second week. The live action retelling of the classic tale dropped only 46 percent from its debut over the July Fourth weekend for a total domestic gross to date of $81.4 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 July 19 in the largest international market, China. The film cost about $180 million to make.

The weekend's only other new release, the R-rated comedy "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" from 20th Century Fox, landed in fourth place with an estimated $16.6 million. This is significantly better than the $12 million to $14 million analysts projected the film would take in.

Rounding out the top five was Universal's "The Purge: Election Year," the most recent film in James DeMonaco's "Purge" series, produced by Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes. 

Upcoming Events