Friday Report: 'Finding Dory' Keeps On Swimming While Audiences Pay Interest in 'Central Intelligence'

     Following a box office rebound last weekend, 'Finding Dory' will continue the impressive numbers as it looks to be the biggest animated opener of all time, demolishing previous record-holder 'Shrek the Third'. Meanwhile, fellow opener 'Central Intelligence' also debuted to solid figures, successfully counter-programming against all of the sequels and adaptations.

     Easily taking first place on Friday, 'Finding Dory' posted the largest opening day for an animated film in history, handily defeating the $38.4 million opening day of the aforementioned 'Shrek the Third'. It also did notably better than 'Minions' ($46m) and previous Pixar record-holder 'Toy Story 3' ($41.1m). As previously mentioned, 'Dory' is expected to beat the $121.6 million debut of 'Shrek' for the biggest animated opening weekend ever. The immense goodwill of its predecessor 'Finding Nemo', which is arguably one of the most beloved films of all time regardless of being animated or not, strong critical reviews and unprecedented buzz going into the weekend, and the endless promotion of the film on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' helped 'Dory' secure its spot at the box office. Disney is officially predicting a weekend of around $130 million to $145 million, which is a bit front-loaded for an animated offering though it is understandable given the massive numbers and that no animated film before has ever gotten this high. However, all of the above reasons as well as solid word-of-mouth should get the film to hold up strongly over Father's Day weekend, making a $150m+ debut a reasonable prediction.

     In a distant but solid second place was the $50-million Dwayne Johnson/Kevin Hart led action comedy 'Central Intelligence', which grossed $13 million. That is ahead of recent Kevin Hart comedies 'About Last Night' ($12.9m), 'Think Like A Man Too' ($12.2m), 'Get Hard' ($12.9m), and 'Ride Along 2' ($11.9m). As for Johnson's filmography, it almost outdoes 'Snitch''s $13.2 million opening and does beat the $8.5 million debut of 2010's 'Faster'. Among buddy cop films, it performed right in line with 'The Other Guys' ($13.1m), 'The Heat' ($13.7m), and '21 Jump Street' ($13.2m) while outperforming 'The Green Hornet' ($11.1m) and '2 Guns' ($9.9m) among comparisons. Overall, all of the previously mentioned films (excluding 'Snitch' and 'Faster') finished the weekend in the range of $25.6 million to $39.1 million. 'Central Intelligence' is very likely to finish on the high end of those numbers, with a possible weekend of around $35 million to $38 million.

     Though the $40-million horror sequel 'The Conjuring 2' received strong critical reviews and audience reception, it still wasn't able to match the holding power of its predecessor. Dropping a sharp 66.9% from its opening day, 'Conjuring' grossed $5.4 million, which is lower than the $7.3 million second Friday of the first 'Conjuring' and barely better than the $5.2 million of its spin-off 'Annabelle'. In fact, its Friday-to-Friday drop was more on par with 'Annabelle' than the original 'Conjuring'. So far, the horror sequel has now made a solid $61.6 million. If it follows 'Annabelle''s pattern, it will end the weekend with around $16.5 million.
     Fellow sequel 'Now You See Me 2' also failed to replicate the impressive holding power of its 2013 predecessor, tumbling 66.5% for $2.8 million. That is a much steeper fall than the 39.7% drop of the original, which grossed $6.1 million. So far, the $90-million magician thriller sequel has now made a so-so $34.5 million in eight days of release. A weekend of around $9 million to $10 million is likely.
     The final June 10th wide release, Universal's $160-million video game adaptation fantasy 'Warcraft', continued its miserable domestic run, grossing just $1.9 million and plummeting a ghastly 82%. Word-of-mouth is great for the film, but apparently its overall lack of interest as well as unenthusiastic critical reviews have prevented many from checking it out in theaters. With a meager $33.1 million in the bank, 'Warcraft' should finish with over $5.5 million for the weekend. However, it is doing much, much, much better overseas than over here, especially in China were it has demolished records.

Weekend Forecast

1. 'Finding Dory' - $154.6 million

2. 'Central Intelligence' - $36.1 million

3. 'The Conjuring 2' - $16.6 million (-58.9%)

4. 'Now You See Me 2' - $9.4 million (-58%)

5. 'Warcraft' - $5.7 million (-76.4%)