Finding Dory rules the roost

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FINDING Dory has swam to the top of box office history to become the highest grossing animated film in the United States as the sequel to Finding Nemo now stands at a whopping $451, 40 million.

FINDING Dory has swam to the top of box office history to become the highest grossing animated film in the United States as the sequel to Finding Nemo now stands at a whopping $451, 40 million.

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Box Office Mojo reported the film reached the milestone when it grossed $11,28 million last weekend, ensuring its place on top of the animated pyramid in the United States. Globally, the film stood at $727,60 million as of Wednesday last week.

Reaching the milestone almost made everyone forget the rebooted series of the Ghostbuster franchise made famous in the 80s with the new take, featuring a female centric cast. But, since I already spoke about Find Dory, a look at Ghostbusters is in order.

The film has been met with a mixed response, but leaning more towards a positive one thus far. The negative part comes from critics stating for a reboot, Ghostbusters “pales” in comparison to the 80s cult classic films. Let us hope it really is not a sexiest remark considering the all-female cast.

Ghostbuster’s stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones with McCarthy leading the pack. Negative criticism associated with the film comes from the fact that most people in their late 40s and early 50s grew up on the Ghostbusters and feel over protective over the property.

McCarthy plays the character Abby Yates, who is one of the four women who band together to defeat ghosts that are threatening to descend on Times Square, New York City.

The film starts off with Yates as a paranormal researcher who teams up with physicist Erin Gilbert, played by Wiig, to prove that ghosts exist in modern society. When strange apparitions appear in Manhattan, Gilbert and Yates turn to engineer Jillian Holtzmann, played by Mckinnon, for help. Knowing they will need more than that, they recruit lifelong cabbie Patty Tolan, played by Patty Talon. Once the band of merry women get together, they embark on a road to get rid of the ghosts plaguing the city.

When the film’s director Paul Feig and McCarthy come together, the film is always going to be bound for success, with McCarthy finding a solid fan base. The film does well in keeping up with the Ghostbuster tradition and even features the iconic theme song.

Although I have always preferred McCarthy in an R-rated comedy film, Ghostbusters also showed she could be funny even in a film meant for a wider audience.

For fans of the Ghostbuster franchise, this is definitely one to watch as it not only has a lot of humorous moments, but keeps up with tradition while offering something new.

In my last film review, I highlighted The Secret Life of Pets as one to watch and it did not disappoint. Going into the weekend, Ghostbusters was widely expected to top the box office, but in a surprise twist, the lovable animated film with a focus on pets, barked its way to number one.

According to Box Office Mojo, the film secured its victory with $50,83 million in the United States last weekend.

As of Wednesday, the film had a domestic haul of $225,41 million and a global haul of $276,32 million.

Talking about a very lovable subject and factoring in wide ranging humourous themes was always going to strike the right cords with people. Oh by the way, the film is still outdoing Ghostbusters.

In what has been a strange year thus far, animated films are bringing the fire to the box office with the runs of Finding Dory and The Secret Life of Pets leaving traditional films behind in their wake.

However, this will change with the coming of Matt Damon’s fourth outing as the super spy Jason Bourne, in the film of the same name and Suicide Squad. The latter features an all start cast, set in the world of Batman V Superman, featuring some of the worst DC Comics villains being recruited to take on even bigger baddies.

The Purge: Election Year and The Legend of Tarzan continue to perform, with the latter getting a box office $200 million globally.

Another animated film that will aim for glory this week is from the popular animated franchise Ice Age, releasing its fifth installment Ice Age: Collision Course and with the current popularity of animated feature, it is set up really well.

Despite the success of animated films recently, I am afraid this weekend’s box office crown will go to Star Trek Beyond, the third outing in the highly popular Star Trek series. Tragically, one of the film’s stars, Anton Yelchin, who played Pavel Chekov, died last month in a freak accident at the tender age of 27, which will probably bring in more people to watch his last performance. Look to a massive space extravaganza of impressive computer-generated images, special effects and action. Knowing Ster Kinekor Eastgate, they will make sure to offer audiences this film on an even grander scale.