Dog Man Scores One of January’s Best Box Office Opening Weekends

Dog Man easily won the box office during its opening weekend, posting one of the best debuts for a January release. It’s estimated that the Dav Pilkey adaptation will gross $35.3 million domestically over its first three days. Per Deadline, that figure would be the second-highest opening for a January animated film, trailing only Kung Fu Panda 3 ($41.8 million). Dog Man‘s opening actually ranks within the top 15 of all-time January weekends, sandwiched between the 1997 re-release of Star Wars ($35.9 million) and 2016’s Ride Along 2 ($35.2 million).

In a very distant second, horror film Companion is set to gross between $8-10 million during its opening weekend. The projected top five is rounded out by Mufasa: The Lion King ($6.6 million), One of Them Days ($5.85 million), and last week’s champion, Flight Risk ($5.5 million).

Heading into the weekend, Dog Man was expected to be a solid draw, with initial estimates pegging it for a $20+ million debut. It ended up faring much better than a previous Pilkey big-screen adaptation: 2017’s Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, which grossed $23.8 million in its first three days. Dog Man is now set up to have a fruitful box office run, seeing that it has a $40 million production budget.

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Companion earned very positive reviews ahead of its premiere, but that word-of-mouth didn’t help its box office prospects. While January is established as a go-to launchpad for horror movies, Companion failed to make a significant impact. The low end of its projected debut is less than the $10.8 million opening posted by the critically panned Wolf Man. Fortunately, Companion has a production budget of just $10 million, meaning it still has a chance to turn a profit.

Taking advantage of a weak marketplace after the rush of high-profile holiday releases, Dog Man should continue to perform well over the next few weeks. It’ll be a fun counterprogramming option for families as the likes of Love Hurts and Captain America: Brave New World open in the first half of February. Dog Man won’t be facing much direct competition for its target demographic; Paddington in Peru will make its U.S. debut in a couple of weeks, but that franchise has always been more of a draw overseas. Based on the opening weekend turnout, there’s much enthusiasm for Dog Man, and given how popular Pilkey’s graphic novels are, the film adaptation should have decent legs.

It’ll be interesting to see if the success of Dog Man leads to the development of a sequel. While Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie was a modest hit ($125.4 million against a $38 million budget), it never received a proper big-screen follow-up. There was a Netflix series titled The Epic Adventures of Captain Underpants, though it’s worth pointing out Dog Man is a Captain Underpants spinoff. Given Dog Man‘s performance, Universal may try to turn it into a lucrative film franchise. Or, this could pave the way for on-screen adaptations of some of Pilkey’s other works. No matter what happens, it seems likely the author’s materials will influence a few more movies or shows.