• by Wayne Friedman , February 2, 2025

Running up a string of the domestic industry-wide animated theatrical hits -- going back to Thanksgiving -- Universal Pictures contributed by scoring a top-dog weekend win with “Dog Man” -- $36 million for the last weekend in January, according to Comscore.

“Dog Man” -- about a half dog/half man that is sworn to protect -- was the second-highest January start ever for an animated film -- behind DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 3” ($41.28 million) back in 2016.

The win for “Dog Man" follows Walt Disney’s Christmas openings -- “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Christmas) and Disney’s “Moana 2” -- and Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” at Thanksgiving.

Those holiday releases posted top-ten results for the January 31-February 2 period -- at $6.1 million, $3.2 million, and $2.8 million, respectively. All three are also at healthy overall domestic revenues: $229.5 million (“Mufasa”), $230.5 million (“Sonic”) and $453.9 million (Moana).

Total domestic box-office revenues are now up 14% vs. a year ago -- to $612.7 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

National TV advertising spend for domestic theatrical movies is now a collective $76.9 million -- up 17% ($66 million) over the same period a year ago.

Universal spent $12.4 million to launch “Dog Man.”

“Sonic” is now at $16.4 million (through 7 weeks of release), while “Moana” is at $30.5 million (at 10 weeks) and “Mufasa” is at $27.8 million (at 7 weeks).