Pixar’s ‘Finding Dory’ swims to an animation box-office record

Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Dory” earned $55 million Friday, setting an opening day record for an animated movie and putting Andrew Stanton’s fish tale on track to gross more than $140 million for the weekend, a figure that would surpass the 9-year-old opening weekend record for an animated film held by DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek the Third.”

Buoyed by affection for 2003’s “Finding Nemo,” the long-awaited sequel also will likely deliver Pixar’s biggest opening weekend, surpassing 2010’s “Toy Story 3,” which earned $110 million.

Centered on Ellen DeGeneres’ forgetful sidekick from the original, “Finding Dory” is a much-welcome hit for theater owners, who have seen a sluggish start to the summer box office. Reviews for the film have been mostly positive, and moviegoers gave “Finding Dory” a Cinemascore of A, suggesting it will hold onto a healthy chunk of its audience in coming weeks.

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“Finding Dory’s” success also should help tamp down studio fears that their one sure thing — sequels — are going out of fashion, as Disney’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” Paramount’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” and Universal’s “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” all failed to catch on with cinemagoers.

The only other new wide release film in theaters, Warner Bros.’ “Central Intelligence,” starring Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson, earned $13 million Friday, putting the PG-13 buddy comedy on track to gross a healthy $33.5 million for the weekend.

In third place, Warner Bros.’ “Conjuring 2,” in its second week of release, grossed $5.4 million Friday, putting the horror sequel on track to make $17.1 million over the three-day span.

Rounding out the top five are two other movies in their second week of release, Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me 2,” which grossed $3 million Friday, on its way to a $9.4 million weekend, and Universal’s “Warcraft,” which collected $1.9 million Friday, on its way to a $6.4 million weekend.

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