Disney•Pixar‘s Finding Dory has set a new Thursday previews record for an animated film! The sequel opened with an impressive $9.2 million for the evening ahead of the previous biggest animated starts from Minions ($6.2 million), Despicable Me 2 ($4.7 million), Toy Story 3 ($4.0 million) and Inside Out ($3.7 million), and it’s more than double Disney’s recent success, The Jungle Book ($4.2 million). It’s also looking like Finding Dory is well on its way to breaking the opening record for an animated film, which is still held by 2007’s Shrek the Third ($121.6 million).
Finding Dory features returning favorites Marlin, Nemo and the Tank Gang. Set in part along the California coastline, the story also welcomes a host of new characters, including a few who will prove to be a very important part of Dory’s life, such as her parents. Findng Nemo helmer Andrew Stanton returned to the directors chair for the animated film, which features the voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Michael Sheen, Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton.
New Line‘s Central Intelligence, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, also opened to $1.84 million from Thursday previews.
Central Intelligence follows a one-time bullied geek who grew up to be a lethal CIA agent (Johnson), coming home for his high school reunion. Claiming to be on a top-secret case, he enlists the help of the former “big man on campus” (Hart), now an accountant who misses his glory days. But before the staid numbers-cruncher realizes what he’s getting into it’s too late to get out, as his increasingly unpredictable new friend drags him through a world of shoot-outs, double-crosses and espionage that could get them both killed in more ways than he can count.
