The Secret Life of Pets 2 ruled at the box office this weekend.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 came out No. 1 in the domestic box office rankings this weekend, earning around $47.1 million in its debut, according to Box Office Mojo.
The Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment sequel beat out its primary competitor, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, fairly easily, as it made around $33 million. Dark Phoenix is a disappointing ending to the two-decade X-Men franchise, which soon seems poised to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, it’s frustrating, coming so soon after the cancellation of the X-Men TV series The Gifted.
Anyway, The Secret Life of Pets 2 made about half the money of its 2016 predecessor, which earned $104 million its opening weekend on its way to a $368 million domestic total.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 is currently 10th among all Illumination films domestically, worldwide and adjusted for inflation, going by Box Office Mojo stats.
Among the stars of the emsemble adventure film are Patton Oswalt (Max the Jack Russell), Kevin Hart (Snowball the rabbit) and Harrison Ford (farm dog Rooster).
Why is this number fairly low, since the movie cost $80 million to make? Maybe it’s because of where it falls on the release calendar – a month after the colossal success of Avengers: Endgame, and then in the next month it has to compete against Men in Black: International, Toy Story 4, and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
That’s not even counting the rest of the big movies coming to theaters between now and Christmas – a partial list includes It: Chapter Two, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Frozen 2 and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
Another thing not working in its favor is that the first movie isn’t available to stream on Amazon Prime, Hulu or Netflix. (It is available to rent on Amazon, but it’s not quite a good enough movie to justify the expense.)
Completing the box office top five were the 2019 Aladdin in third at $24.5 million, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was fourth at $15.4 million, and the Elton John biopic Rocketman was fifth at $14 million.
Among the other dog movies currently playing in theaters, the less-than-gracefully titled John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was seventh at $7.4 million, while A Dog’s Journey was 11th, adding another 1.3 million to its haul.