'Incredibles 2' Breaks Records with Huge Opening Weekend

We knew the sequel to The Incredibles was going to be big, but it turned out to be far bigger than we expected. At least in its opening weekend, it's the biggest animated movie of all time, and it's yet one more monster hit for Disney. Read on to find out just how decisively The Incredibles trounced the competition.

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

Pixar has done it again.

Disney and Pixar's Incredibles 2 flew to a record-shattering $180 million from 4,410 theaters at the domestic box office over the weekend, blowing past all expectations. Not only did the sequel score the biggest launch ever for an animated film — Pixar's Finding Dory was the previous champ with $135 million — it scored the eighth-biggest opening of all time, not adjusted for inflation.

Incredibles 2, about a lovable family of superheroes, also danced past Beauty and the Beast ($174.6 million) to boast the biggest bow in history for a PG-rated title. Overseas, it debuted to a stellar $51.5 million from its first 25 markets for a global launch of $231.5 million. In many markets, including Mexico, Australia and Russia, the movie posted Pixar's best openings to date.

Families were hardly the only members of the audience. More than 31 percent of all ticket buyers in the U.S. were adults sans kids, while fanboy-centric Imax theaters turned in a hefty $14.1 million.

"The movie played to everybody. You definitely don't get to this level without reaching across all segments of the audience, including adults and teens," says Disney distribution chief Cathleen Taff. "Our evenings were stronger than with most animated films."

The sequel is the 20th movie from the storied animation studio and establishes a new franchise for Pixar and Disney. It is also the first Pixar release to hit theaters after Disney announced last week that animation chief and Pixar co-founder John Lasseter will exit the studio at the end of the year.

Every single Pixar film has earned some variation of an A CinemaScore, and Incredibles 2 was no exception, garnering an A+. The first Incredibles, released 14 years ago, likewise earned a perfect A+.

Incredibles 2 surely benefited from pent-up demand. It is the first animated film of the summer season and opened in the wake of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which failed to galvanize moviegoers in a major way. Disney and Lucasfilms' Solo finished the weekend with a disappointing global cume of $339.5 million, making it unlikely that the Star Wars installment will earn much more than $350 million all in. Conversely, Disney and Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War delivered another victory as it overtook Titanic domestically. Infinity War finished Sunday with a North American cume of $664.2 million, compared to $659.4 million for Titanic, not adjusted for inflation.

Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

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