As expected, Disney and Pixar’s Finding Dory just kept swimming over the weekend, and had no trouble passing by new releases Independence Day: Resurgence, The Shallows, and Free State of Jones to take the top spot at the box office.
The animated sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo earned $73.2 million on its way to having the eighth highest-grossing second weekend of all time, and had no trouble beating all four of the week’s major new releases. The film already holds the record for animated features’ opening weekends and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down with audiences.
The outlook wasn’t nearly as bright for Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day: Resurgence, which suffered from poor reviews — both from critics and general audiences — and failed to match the success of its 1996 predecessor despite bringing back quite a few members of the original cast. Much like Warcraft and Alice Through the Looking Glass, Resurgence is doing significantly better overseas than in U.S. theaters, so 20th Century Fox is almost certainly hoping to keep that momentum going with international audiences.
| # | Title | Weekend | U.S. Total | Worldwide Total |
| 1. | Finding Dory | $73.2M | $286.5M | $396.8M |
| 2. | Independence Day: Resurgence | $41.6M | $41.6M | $143.1M |
| 3. | Central Intelligence | $18.3M | $69.3M | $83.6M |
| 4. | The Shallows | $16.7M | $16.7M | $16.7M |
| 5. | Free State of Jones | $7.7M | $7.7M | $7.7M |
| 6. | The Conjuring 2 | $7.7M | $86.9M | $242.9M |
| 7. | Now You See Me 2 | $5.6M | $52M | $159.7M |
| 8. | X-Men: Apocalypse | $2.4M | $151.1M | $523.8M |
| 9. | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows | $2.4M | $77.1M | $153.9M |
| 10. | Alice Through the Looking Glass | $2.1M | $74.5M | $249M |
The lone positive among the weekend’s new releases was shark-attack thriller The Shallows, which nearly made back its $17 million budget in its opening weekend thanks to positive reviews and good word-of-mouth buzz ahead of its premiere. It’s been a while since a shark movie did well in theaters, and The Shallows star Blake Lively could very well have a hit on her hands.
Elsewhere, the aforementioned Warcraft continued to do very well overseas despite its “flop” status in the U.S. movie market. With nearly $412.2 million worldwide, director Duncan Jones’ adaptation of the hit game franchise is currently the ninth highest-grossing film of the year after only three weeks in theaters.
This upcoming week features yet another Disney movie premiering in theaters, as Steven Spielberg’s The BFG looks to challenge Finding Dory for the weekend box-office crown. Disney has had the movie at the box office for 12 of the 26 weeks in the year so far, and it looks like another one could be on the way.
The other major releases arriving in theaters this week will be the live-action adventure The Legend of Tarzan and the horror sequel The Purge: Election Year.
