Last Saturday, on its 79th day of domestic release, Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets surpassed Disney’s The Jungle Book to become the third-highest-grossing U.S. release of the year. The film’s total at the end of the weekend stood at $364.3 million, which is around $4 million less than Illumination’s all-time U.S. grosser, Minions ($368.1m).
Pets’ impressive worldwide total—$821.8m—still lags both Minions ($1.16 billion) and Despicable Me 2 ($970.8m), however it is easily the top-grossing original Illumination release to date, topping Despicable Me’s $543.1 million global total.
Less impressive, Warner Bros. launched Storks in 3,922 theaters last Friday, and ended up with $21.3 million for the weekend. The launch for the Doug Sweetland/Nicholas Stoller-directed film was good for second place, but fell short of the type of debuts that Sony Pictures Animation has achieved in the late-September slot: Hotel Tranyslvania 2 ($48.5m, 2015), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 ($34m, 2013), Hotel Tranyslvania ($42.5m, 2012), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ($30.3m, 2009). The film may end up performing only slightly better than Warner Bros.’ own late-September release, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which launched with $16.1m in 2010 and wrapped up with $55.7m domestic.