LOS ANGELES — The forgetful blue fish of “Finding Dory” is box office gold. The Pixar sequel far surpassed its already ocean-sized expectations to take in $136.2 million in North American theaters, making it the highest-grossing animated debut of all time, according to comScore estimates Sunday. The 2007 film “Shrek the Third” was the previous record-holder with a $121.6 million debut.
“Finding Dory,” which comes 13 years after “Finding Nemo” hit theaters, is also now the second-largest June opening of all time behind “Jurassic World.” The well-reviewed film features the voices of Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks and played particularly well with audiences, who gave the film an A CinemaScore – Pixar’s 17th film in a row to receive that impressive grade.
Going into the weekend, analysts expected “Finding Dory” to do big, $100 million-plus business, but never this much.
“The thought was could this be the movie to eclipse ‘Toy Story 3’s’ opening, not could it become the biggest animated opening of all time,” said Paul Dergarabedian, comScore’s senior media analyst. “That’s the power of the Pixar brand.”
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