The Secret Life of Pets dominated the weekend box office in North America, racking up a massive $103.2 million and launching the first new franchise of the summer.

Its success is a feather in the cap for Illumination chief Chris Meledandri, confirming his status among the ranks of animation giants. The family film, which explores what dogs, cats and other animal companions do while their owners are busy at work, cost an economical $75 million to produce, roughly half of what most studios spend making animated movies. Universal is backing the picture, which launched across 4,370 locations.

The cuddly creatures that populate Pets seem tailor- made to sell stuffed animals and T-shirts, creating a financial windfall for the studio. The film deftly exploited dog- and cat-obsessed moviegoers to appeal to both parents and children. In the US alone, Americans are expected to spend more than $62 billion in 2016 on their pets.
The Secret Life of Pets easily supplanted Disney andPixar’s Finding Dory from first place on the box office charts.
Pets will post the sixth-best opening of 2016 following Captain America: Civil War, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,

Finding Dory, Deadpool and The Jungle Book.

Furthermore, Pets is the biggest opening of the year for Universal, which has struggled to replicate last year’s record-annihilating results.