The forgetful fish Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) made animation history at the box office.
Pixar sequel Finding Dory easily outswam the competition, taking in $136.2 million, according to studio estimates. This marks a new opening weekend record for an animated film, beating the previous record of $121.6 million set by DreamWorks in 2007 with Shrek the Third.
The Dory tally also marked the biggest PG-rated opening (previously Shrek the Third) and the largest Pixar opening weekend (topping 2010's Toy Story 3, which opened with $110.3 million).
Audiences were eager to see the new story, which arrived 13 years after DeGeneres' Dory helped clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) search for his son in 2003 hit Finding Nemo. The fish story's lure has only grown with repeated home viewings.
"Finding Dory just showed total domination this weekend," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "The Finding Nemo brand has been building with audiences for 13 years, first on the big screen and then on the small screen. That set the stage for this spectacular debut, bigger than anyone expected."
With DeGeneres' Dory taking the lead in the new chapter, 62% of the audience consisted of women and girls, according to comScore tracking. "It was girl power all the way with this terrific female character. The female audience powered this opening weekend," says Dergarabedian.
Finding Dory also scored with critics, receiving a 95% positive critical rating on the review aggregation site RottenTomatoes.com, and getting an A from audiences at CinemaScore.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Kevin Hart finished second with their buddy comedy Central Intelligence, which still took in an impressive $34.5 million.
"That’s a good showing," says Dergarabedian. "Central Intelligence was great counter-programming against Finding Dory and a strong option for audiences who were not animated film fans."
The movie about a secret agent who pulls a high-school pal into his spy mission received a 66% positive critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- from audiences on CinemaScore.
Last weekend's box-office champ, horror sequel The Conjuring 2, took third place with $15.6 million (and $71.7 million total). Illusionist thriller Now You See Me 2 conjured up $9.7 million in its second weekend to finish fourth ($41.4 million total).
Video game-based Warcraft made $6.5 million, rounding out the top five ($37.7 million total). But that was a massive 73% drop from last weekend's disappointing domestic opening of $24.2 million.
Final numbers are expected Monday.
