Illumination and Universal’s The Secret Life Of Pets is raising the summer box office out of its doldrums this weekend with a three-day estimate of between $90 million-$100 million, which would make it the second-best opening for an animated film in July after last year’s Minions, which debuted to $115M. That’s the current industry estimate off of Friday matinees. Today alone, the original animated pic by directors Yarrow Cheney and Chris Renaud is looking at $35M-$36M, which is about what Despicable Me 2 made on its first day ($35M) which was a Wednesday. Whenever animated features put up these types of figures, it also means that they’re playing strongly into the evening. With Pets starting out this high at the box office, it is quite conceivable it will beat Sony’s Ghostbusters for the No. 1 spot next weekend, as that pic is currently projected between $35M-$41M.

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