The Dog Man movie is a hit! The madcap animated adventures pulled in $36 million domestically, the second largest animated opening in a January, and the third #1 film in a row for Dreamworks.
According to PostTrak, 45% bought tickets to Dog Man because it looked fun and entertaining, while close to a third of the audience went because it’s part of a franchise they love, that being the Dav Pilkey Scholastic graphic novels. He has said that he first conceived the character in the second grade. Dog Man gets a solid A CinemaScore, but PostTrak exits are harder among adults at 3 1/2 stars and 75% positive. Among general audiences, now mostly male skewing at 52%, the majority of ticket buyers are under 35 at 70%. Diversity demos are solid showing 41% Caucasian, 27% Latino/Hispanic, 12% Black and 10% Asian. PLF screens rep 22% of the weekend. The Peter Hastings-directed movie is playing evenly throughout the country from red states to blue states with the Burbank, CA AMC the pic’s No. 1 cinema in the nation with just over $44k.
Anyone with middle grade kids in the Dog Man demo will not be surprised, as quite a few of them (some in my own family) hit theaters to see the toon brought to life.
I’ll admit I was a bit worried when the film was relegated to a January opening – traditionally the graveyard for films, but Universal seems to know what it was doing, with a solid marketing campaign. Basically the end of January is the perfect time to leave the house for a fun movie, and Dog Man filled the bill.
Adults seem to have enjoyed the film as well – I certainly did. It was imaginative and funny with a lot of heart (kids at my screening yelled out “L’il Petey!” the minute he appeared on screen) – just like the books. I have a feeling that the material was a lot weirder (ie original) than most kids movies, and that may have confused some studio execs. Usually when I sit down for an animated movie I know from the premise exactly what is going to happen. I’m not as familiar with the early Dog Man books, so although I knew L’Il Petey would be the catalyst for what happened, I honestly wasn’t sure what would happen because……so MUCH was happening. And that’s a good feeling in the theater.
Just guessing, but I expect this will lead to at least one sequel – maybe a franchise? The film cost only $40 million so it’s set to make a solid profit. So yay! Another comic book movie makes good.
