Chris Luckett

Finding Dory blew newcomers Independence Day: Resurgence, Free State of Jones, and The Shallows out of the water in its second weekend.

After setting a record for an animated film with a $135-million opening last weekend and despite three challengers in its second, Finding Dory earned an estimated $73-million over the weekend, bringing its 10-day domestic total to $287 (already making it the 13 highest-grossing animated movie ever).

Between The Force Awakens, Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Captain America: Civil War, and Finding Dory, Disney has held the #1 spot at the weekend box office 12 times over the span of 26 weeks — almost half the weekends so far this year.

Due to weak reviews, Independence Day: Resurgence failed to reach its projected opening of $45-50 million, only reaching  $42-million. That may not sound too bad, until you consider the film cost $165-million to make, without even including marketing costs.

The original Independence Day opened to $50-million twenty years ago, when tickets prices were about half what they are today.

Free State of Jones feel far short of expectations also, pulling in an estimated $8-million. That marks the lowest opening weekend for a Matthew McConaughey picture since 2006’s We are Marshall, which opened to $6-million.

The only success story of the newcomers this weekend was The Shallows. The Blake Lively-starred opened to an estimated $17-million, just a few hundred-thousand dollars shy of its entire production cost.

1. Finding Dory ($73,234,746)
2. Independence Day: Resurgence ($41,600,000)
3. Central Intelligence ($18,370,000)
4. The Shallows ($16,700,000)
5. Free State of Jones ($7,772,000)
6. The Conjuring 2 ($7,705,000)
7. Now You See Me 2 ($5,650,000)
8. X-Men: Apocalypse ($2,475,000)
9. TMNT: Out of the Shadows ($2,400,000)
10. Alice Through the Looking Glass ($2,147,144)

(Source: Box Office Mojo)