‘Incredibles 2’ Shatters Records With A Super $180 Million Opening Weekend

Wow, “Incredibles 2” sure did have an incredible weekend, huh? (Yeah, had to do it, sue me.)

Coming into the weekend, everyone assumed that “Incredibles 2” would have a massive opening. The stars have truly aligned for the animated film. The film has had a ton of hype and buzz leading to its opening, with a truly impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, showing that the franchise hasn’t missed a beat in 14 years between films. Also, with “Solo: A Star Wars Story” not dominating as was expected, “Ocean’s 8” targeting different audiences, and a lack of family films recently, the stage was set for something special. And “Incredibles 2” delivered.

Weekend estimates put “Incredibles 2” at $180 million for its first three days. As you might imagine with a number like that, some records were shattered. The most impressive records include Best Opening Weekend for an Animated Film (beating “Finding Dory’s” $135 million) and the Best Opening Weekend for A G-rated OR PG-rated film (beating “Beauty and the Beast’s” $174 million).

READ MORE: ‘Incredibles 2’ Is An Animated Blast & Improves On The Beloved Pixar Original [Review]

Overall, $180 million is good enough to put “Incredibles 2” at #8 on the all-time Best Openings chart, barely beating “Captain America: Civil War’s” $179 million. And if you’re keeping track, that gives Disney ownership of 9 of the Top 10 openings of all time, with only “Jurassic World” (#4) the lone outlier. Boy, that makes people forget all about the “Sky is falling!” articles about ‘Solo,’ huh?

And even though there’s major competition coming next weekend with “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” don’t expect “Incredibles 2” to falter too much. The family film doesn’t necessarily attract the same audience and “Incredibles 2” has earned the highly-coveted A+ CinemaScore, which means that word of mouth should be strong in the weeks ahead.

Coming in a distant second-place is last week’s winner, “Ocean’s 8.” The female-led heist flick dropped a respectable -53% in its second weekend for an estimated $19.6 million. Clearly, audiences have warmed up to this new entry in the ‘Ocean’s’ franchise, which bodes well for a potential sequel.

“Incredibles 2” wasn’t the only major opening this weekend. R-rated comedy “Tag” opened at #3 with a decent $14.6 million. With a modest budget of only $28 million, the relatively low opening (when compared to 2018 comedies “Blockers,” “Game Night,” and “Life of the Party,” which all opened higher) isn’t anything to be worried about. However, as far as counter-programming goes, Warner Bros. would probably have liked something closer to $20 million.

READ MORE: ‘Tag’ With Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner & More Isn’t A Game Worth Playing [Review]

Other films opening this weekend included “Superfly” (which technically opened on Wednesday) with $6.3 million at #7. However, considering the true opening day was Wednesday and the film only carries a budget of $16 million, this isn’t terrible. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for John Travolta’s “Gotti.” The film, which was shown at Cannes (let your conspiracy theories fly), has the distinction of a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps due to the negative word of mouth or the under the radar marketing, “Gotti” finished outside the Top 10 at #12 with $1.67 million. Not good, at all.

The other big story from last week was “Hereditary.” The horror film has been critically-lauded as the best film in the genre in years. However, there seemed to be a disconnect with audiences, as “Hereditary” earned a dismal D+ CinemaScore. Many assumed that the word of mouth would be a death sentence for the scary movie. In its second weekend, “Hereditary” has shown impressive legs with a #6 showing and $7 million weekend. While most horror (especially with terrible CinemaScores) falls anywhere between 60-70% between first and second weekends, “Hereditary” only dropped 48% in its second frame. To date, the film has earned a domestic total of $27.2 million.

As for a quick mega-franchise update, “Deadpool 2” and ‘Solo’ had a fight for #4 this weekend, with ‘Solo’ eeking out a victory with $9 million (vs. ‘DP2’s’ $8.8 million). And “Avengers: Infinity War” earned another $5.3 million, which brings its massive domestic total to $664 million, beating “Titanic” for #4 all-time.

READ MORE: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Joins The $2 Billion Club At The Box Office

However, expect another big weekend coming up with “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” set to conquer the box office. With a record-breaking opening for the first film, all bets are off for the sequel. However, with theaters pretty loaded with big-budget franchise films, ‘JW2’ might not be as massive as people are expecting. We’ll soon find out.

Here’s the rest of the Top 10 for June 15 to 17:

1. Incredibles 2 — $180M (Debut)
2. Ocean’s 8 — $19.6M ($79.2M)
3. Tag — $14.6M (Debut)
4. Solo: A Star Wars Story — $9M ($192.8M)
5. Deadpool 2 — $8.8M ($294.7M)
6. Hereditary — $7M (27.2)
7. Superfly — $6.3M (Debut)
8. Avengers: Infinity War — $5.3M ($664.2M)
9. Adrift — $2.1M ($26.8M)
10. Book Club — $1.85M ($62M)