List of highest-grossing openings for animated films

The following is a list of the highest-grossing opening weekends for animated films. The list is dominated by recent films due to steadily increasing marketing budgets, and modern films opening on more screens. Another contributing factor is inflation not being taken into account.

An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of more than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time.

This list charts films that had openings in excess of $100 million worldwide. Since animated films do not open on Fridays in many markets, the 'opening' is taken to be the gross between the first day of release and the first Sunday. Figures prior to the year 2002 are not available.

Figures are given in United States dollars (USD). 2013 and 2016 are the most represented year, with four films. The Ice Age franchise is the most represented franchise with three films. DreamWorks Animation is the most represented studio with five films on the list. This list does not take into account country-by-country variations in release dates. Therefore, in some cases opening weekend grosses from many, or even most countries may not be included.

At least 4 animated films have held the record of highest-grossing animated film at different times. Pixar is the only studio to hold the record on two different times.

This list charts films the top 50 highest-grossing animated opening weekends in U.S. and Canada for an animated film since 1982.

Figures are given in United States dollars (USD). Ninety-eight percent of the films in the top 50 were released after 2000 & 2015 and 2016 is the most represented year, with six films each. Shrek and Ice Age are the most represented franchises with four films each.

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