The Record

... seems to be in the making.

Thursday night was a good night for Finding Dory, which hauled in $9.2 million, a record Thursday preview number for an animated film.

Minions held the previous record with $6.2 million before opening with $115.7 million just last year, the second highest opening for an animated film behind 2007's Shrek the Third ($121.6m). At this point it's looking like the record is in the bag. ...

This only goes to show that, even though more animated features are being released than ever, we have not yet reached the "cannibalization" threshold.

Of course, the meme that too many animated features in the marketplace devour each other is flapdoodle, and always has been. Animation doesn't perform for the same reason live-action doesn't perform: nobody wants to go see pictures that don't engage audiences.

It's been this way since movies began, and it really hasn't changed.