Finding Dory that cried out to be made." Conservationists warned that, very much like "Finding Nemo", the film could lead to uninformed customers buying blue tangs for home aquariums. Blue tangs cannot be bred in captivity and have to be caught in the wild. They are related to surgeonfish and exhibit razor-sharp spines on both sides of the tail that can inflict formidable wounds. While promoting the film, actress Ellen DeGeneres reminded audiences that Nemo and Dory's real-life home, the Great Barrier Reef, is under enormous threat, mostly due to coral bleaching, a process induced by climate change, which has killed coral
Finding Nemo surpassed it. The film sold an estimated 56,337,500 tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run. In North America, "Finding Nemo" set an opening weekend record for an animated feature, making $70,251,710 (first surpassed by "Shrek 2") and ended up spending 11 weeks in the top 10 domestically (including 7 weeks in the top 5), remaining there until August 14. It became the highest-grossing animated film in North America ($339.7 million), outside North America ($528.2 million), and worldwide ($867.9 million), in all three occasions out-grossing "The Lion King". In North America, it was surpassed by both "Shrek 2" in