All signs are pointing to Brad Bird’s The Incredibles 2 movie breaking major records at the box office this weekend. The Disney/Pixar sequel is the first fully animated wide release since Sherlock Gnomes in March, and is estimated to open in the $150 to $174 million range when it plays in 4,410 theaters nationwide.
The film arrives 14 years after the original, and audiences have been quite vocal about wanting to see a sequel to the beloved original. It also marks the longest gap between sequels for Pixar (Finding Dory arrived 13 years after Finding Nemo). Insides expect the movie to beat Finding Dory’s $135 box office debut, which is the largest domestic opening for an animated movie. Online ticket seller Fandango.com has also reported that the movie is its all-time biggest animated seller to date.
The movie had a record-shattering $18.5 million preview on Thursday night, beating the $9.2 million earned by Finding Dory to score the biggest preview gross of all time for an animated film. The film’s preview also beat records by films such as Beauty and the Beast ($16.3 million), Spider-Man: Homecoming ($15.4 million) and Thor: Ragnarok ($14.5 million).
Critics have also already embraced The Incredibles 2: The movie has received a 94% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. Here is a sampling of critics’ take on the movie:
Glen Weldon of NPR writes, “Once again, the action is fittingly spectacular, the music is great, and the whole thing looks fantastic,” while Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal points out that it is “a great-looking sequel about the importance of family, and the potential for revenue.” Stephanie Zacharek of Time Magazine notes, “Even in the midst of its many boundless pleasures, Incredibles 2 charges us with a mission that’s not for the faint of heart: to choose to look at one another instead of being fixated on the screens all around us.”
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman is a bit less impressed. He writes, “Brad Bird’s sequel to his superhero-family Pixar classic doesn’t build on the first film so much as dutifully replay it. It’s fun, but far from incredible.” The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy gives a more glowing review. “Boosted by central characters that remain vastly engaging and a deep supply of wit, Incredibles 2 certainly proves worth the wait, even if it hits the target but not the bull’s-eye in quite the way the first one did. It remains to be seen whether everyone who loved the original when they were 6 years old and is now 20 will rush out to catch this follow-up, but there’s plenty of crackling entertainment value here for viewers from 5 to 95.”
You can read more about the making of the movie here, and watch the latest trailer here.
