Weekend Box Office Report: July 8-10, 2016

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Pets chase away Dory!

One family-friendly animated feature kicked another from atop the box office this weekend as THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS took the number one spot with an estimated $103.1 million!

The latest from DESPICABLE ME creators Illumination couldn't best the $115.7 million domestic debut of their MINIONS last summer, but it is the biggest opening ever for a movie that isn't a sequel or adapted from existing material.

THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, which cost a comparatively modest $75 million to make, also brought in $42.6 million from overseas even before it expands to most international territories in August. The animated animals entertained the majority of critics with a 76% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thanks in part to star Alexander Skarsgard's impressive physique, THE LEGEND OF TARZAN kept a firm grip on second place with another $20.6 million. That's a decent hold from last weekend's opening, losing 46% of business in its second weekend for a 10-day domestic total of $81.4 million and a global total of $135.4 millon (the PG-13 adventure cost a reported $180 million to produce).

After three weekends on top, Pixar's FINDING DORY descended to third place with $20.3 million, while at the same time overcoming the $406 million domestic total of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR to become the year's highest-grossing domestic release with $422.5 million.

In addition, FINDING DORY has surpassed TOY STORY 3's $415 million finish to become Pixar's biggest domestic hit, and is currently just short of THE LION KING's $422.7 million total to reign as the highest-grossing animated film released by Disney. The Pixar sequel is also at a worldwide total of $642.7 million.

Opening in fourth place was the new R-rated comedy MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES with $16.6 million, grossing about half of its reported $33 million cost. The summer's second raunchy comedy with Zac Efron (along with Aubrey Plaza and PITCH PERFECT co-stars Anna Kendrick and Adam Devine) didn't amuse many critics with a 41% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR moved down to fifth with $11.7 million, a drop of 63% from its third-place opening last weekend. The R-rated sequel has a 10-day domestic total of $58.1 million (on a $10 million reported cost).

The Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson/Kevin Hart action-comedy CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE held onto sixth place with another $8.1 million in the bank as it crossed the $100 million domestic mark on its fourth weekend of release. The big-budget alien invasion sequel INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE followed in seventh with $7.7 million, with a worldwide total now at $305 million (almost what the 1996 original INDEPENDENCE DAY grossed… just in its domestic run).

With $7.6 million and seventh place on its second weekend, Steven Spielberg's THE BFG isn't nearly as big as its main character. The PG fantasy (adapted from Roald Dahl's book) dipped almost 60% from its opening last week for a 10-day domestic total of $38.7 million on a reported cost of $140 million. At this rate it's looking like it will end up as one of the filmmaker's lowest-grossing domestic releases, even if it gets past the $44.2 million total of AMISTAD and the $47.4 million finish of MUNICH.

The Blake Lively thriller THE SHALLOWS was in ninth with $4.8 million, with a domestic total of $45.8 million on its third weekend (the PG-13 shark survival tale cost only $17 million). At the bottom, the Bollywood sports drama SULTAN jumped into the Top 10 with $2.2 million on just 283 screens.

Outside the chart, THE CONJURING 2 was frightened off the list (with $291.2 million worldwide) along with NOW YOU SEE ME 2 and FREE STATE OF JONES. In limited release, the new Viggo Mortensen drama CAPTAIN FANTASTIC had a per-screen average of $24k.

Next weekend brings the reboot of Ivan Reitman's classic GHOSTBUSTERS, while Bryan Cranston chases drug lord Pablo Escobar in the fact-based thriller THE INFILTRATOR (on Wednesday).

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