Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2 flexed its muscles and delivered a massive opening weekend debut, not only shattering the previous opening weekend record for an animated film, but finishing with one of the top ten openings of all-time for a film of any genre.
With an estimated $180 million, Disney and Pixar’s Incredibles 2 topped, by $45 million, the previous opening weekend for an animated film set two years ago by Finding Dory with $135 million.
The film also delivered the largest opening day ever for an animated title and the second largest June opening ever behind Jurassic World. Added to that, when it comes to the largest opening weekends of all-time, Disney now owns nine of the top ten, the lone standout being the aforementioned Jurassic World at number four.
On top of that, the film’s opening weekend is the eighth largest all-time, topping the $179.1 million opening for 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, which went on to gross over $400 million at the domestic box office. Also of note, this is more than the $174.7 million opening for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which went on to gross over $500 million domestically.
As for Incredibles 2‘s domestic future, an “A+” CinemaScore and an opening of this size seems to suggest a $500+ million domestic performance is in the offing, which would make it the highest grossing animated film of all-time should it reach that number, topping Dory‘s $486.2 million domestic run.
Internationally, Incredibles 2 brought in an estimated $51.5 million from ~26% of the international market, for a global debut totaling an estimated $231.5 million. As far as the international openings are concerned, the film delivered the largest Pixar opening weekend in several markets including Mexico ($12.3m), Australia ($7.7m) and Argentina ($3m) along with a $5.4 million opening in Russia. The film’s international rollout will be staggered, as is typically the case with Pixar titles, with openings in China, Iceland, Croatia, Thailand and India next weekend followed by releases in Brazil (Jun 28), France (Jul 4), UK (Jul 13), Korea (Jul 19), Japan (Aug 1), Spain (Aug 3), Italy (Sep 19) and Germany (Sep 27).
“Incredibles 2,” which cost Pixar’s corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, at least $300 million to make and market worldwide, played more like a broad action film than a PG-rated cartoon. About 25 percent of the audience was over the age of 35, according to Disney, which is planning more “Incredibles” installments as part of an ongoing franchise.