Post controversy, exhibitors were in fact requesting more prints of A Dog’s Purpose. The movie overindexed in the heartland - middle America places like Toledo, Cincinnati, Madison, and Indianapolis - particularly when compared to other animal pics like Dolphin Tale 2 (opening $15.8M). It only made sense for Split‘s momentum to carryover, not to mention Shyamalan’s titles have proven to beat the genre film curse of the steep second weekend drop and this one is looking to dip an amazing 37%.Ī Dog’s Purpose gets an A CinemaScore, which is in line with other Fido films like Eight Below, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Marley & Me (all A CinemaScores) and is better than Hotel For Dogs (A-) and Snow Dogs (A-). Night Shyamalan title that’s been performing strongly throughout the week ( Split by Sunday should be at $77M). It was arriving in the wake of a crowded holiday marketplace, one that’s recently dominated by a fresh M. Still, bestseller aside, it stood to reason that A Dog’s Purpose would slot a high-teen opening. It deals with the idea of reincarnation, so right there that established IP was able to spike total awareness to 80% on NRG and led some to predict a $20M-plus opening. Bruce Cameron that stayed on the newspaper’s list for 49 weeks. “They always make money.” Max, another goody-goody low-budget family canine film, opened to $12.1M two summers ago, so how could A Dog’s Purpose do more business? For one, A Dog’s Purpose is based on a New York Times bestseller by W. A dog movie? “Yeah, a dog movie,” one non-Uni distribution source told me.
When I first heard that the projections for A Dog’s Purpose were north of $20M, I found it quite unbelievable, particularly for a film built at a low cost ($22M before P&A) for the flyover-state crowd. Compared to other films of its ilk, this is a success story for A Dog’s Purpose.“ Universal Pictures “This movie is made for dog lovers and families and it delivers a wonderful message there, and the A CinemaScore shows that. “The fact is that we resonated so well in the heartland of America,” Universal distribution chief Nick Carpou said this morning.
It wasn’t sold as the second coming of Lassie or Benji, and in fact - mind you, this was completely unintentional on behalf of the studios involved - the controversy arguably raised A Dog’s Purpose‘s profile. A Dog’s Purpose didn’t star Aniston , nor was it based on a popular cartoon like 101 Dalmatians or Scooby-Doo, nor did it have the dazzle in its materials ala a Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua. That 2008 movie was promoted months in advance, was sold heavily on its comedy and was topped off with a catchy film trailer ditty “Aye! Chihuahua!” A Dog’s Purpose is more tame, straight-up family and more in sync with movies like Hotel For Dogs and Max. And it’s for this reason that we can’t say the controversy has killed the film. It stands to reason that A Dog’s Purpose would chart in the high teens based on how similar it is to the vanilla canine predecessors it’s beating. 2 with $36.4M), A Dog’s Purpose is ranked 9th, ahead of such successful titles as Disney’s Snow Dogs ($17.8M), Paramount’s Hotel for Dogs ($17m) and Disney’s 2006 reboot of The Shaggy Dog ($16.3M). Well, how’s that? Hotel for Dogs ParamountĪmong the top 10 openings for dog movies at the B.O., most of which are based on franchises or feature big stars ( Scooby-Doo is tops with $54.1M while the Jennifer Aniston feature Marley & Me is No. Theaters On Opening Nightīut before PETA can claim any victory in regards to hurting a movie’s ticket sales this weekend, we need to take a breath, consider a few things and realize that A Dog’s Purpose‘s opening is still doggone good. 'A Dog's Purpose': PETA Protests At Multiple U.S.