Hot Dogs! ‘Isle of Dogs’ Fetches Best Per-Theater Average For 2nd Weekend In A Row

In its second weekend in limited release in U.S. and Canadian theaters, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs continues to beat expectations.

After a record-setting launch, the Fox Searchlight stop-motion film expanded to 165 theaters (+138) this Easter holiday weekend, earning an estimated $2.8 million over the 3-day. Its $17,030 per-theater average easily topped all other films at the box office.

The big test for Isle of Dogs will be next weekend as the film takes over 450-500 locations, before an even wider expansion the following weekend. Boding well for the film’s expansion, Fox Searchlight reported to Deadline that the film is doing well with both mainstream and art house audiences:

According to CinemaScore, 54% of the audience is under 35 years of age and 53% are male. As we have added 22 new markets and expanded in already-opened cities, we are now reaching a wider and more mainstream audience. The film is playing well in Art and specialty venues, upscale suburban multiplexes, and in younger and hipper locations, such as the Alamo theaters chain, where the film has found great success across the board.

What’s happening right now with the PG-13 rated Isle of Dogs is rather remarkable. There simply aren’t a whole lot of comps for mature, art house stop-motion animation so it’s hard to guess how far this film will go, but it’s already the most successful project of its kind. The only other PG-13 or above stop-mo projects that have been released domestically in recent years are Anomalisa ($3,759,286), My Life as a Zucchini ($309,766), and Hell and Back ($157,768).

Besides Isle of Dogs, there’s plenty of other animation currently at the box office. Steven Spielberg’s vfx-and-animation-laden Ready Player One, a film which some are arguing is in fact an animated film, opened at no. 1 at the box office with an estimated $41.2 million over the three-day.

The vfx-heavy Disney-Marvel film Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, landed in third place in its seventh weekend, grossing $11.3 million. The total is now $650.7m domestic, and by next week, it will become the third-highest grossing domestic release of all-time.

Steven DeKnight’s Pacific Rim Uprising plummeted from first to fifth place in its second weekend with an estimated $9.2 million. The $45.7 domestic total trails the $90 million that the sequel has made over 10 days in China.

Paramount’s Sherlock Gnomes picked up $7 million in its second weekend, pushing its total to $22.8 million. The John Stevenson-directed pic is performing more weakly than the original Gnomeo & Juliet, which had grossed $50.2 million through its second weekend.

Finally, Will Gluck’s Peter Rabbit grossed $2 million in its eighth weekend, lifting its cume to $110.7 million. The film has been a sleeper hit in the U.S.; through the first quarter of 2018, it’s the second-highest grossing release of the year, trailing only Black Panther.

Peter Rabbit has also been a hit in some territories abroad, particularly the U.K. where it has been the no. 1 film for three weekends in a row, beating out the debuts of Ready Player One this weekend and Pacific Rim Uprising last weekend. Internationally, it has grossed $120.1 million, for a $230.8 milllion global total, a solid (and still growing) return on Sony’s relatively modest investment of $50 million.