Gru and the Minions set off fireworks at the box office as America celebrated its birthday. “Despicable Me 4,” the latest chapter in Universal and Illumination’s long-running franchise about a recovering supervillain who trades world domination for family life, dominated the competition, earning $122.6 million in its first five days of release and $75 million during the three days. -day weekend. The film premiered on Wednesday, taking full advantage of the Fourth of July holiday.
But the appeal of “Despicable Me” transcends boundaries. Internationally, the film earned $106.9 million from 52 markets, bringing its worldwide receipts to $229.5 million. In fact, “Despicable Me 4” has a relatively cheap production budget of $100 million, which should make it very profitable for the companies behind it, not to mention all the Minions merchandise they’ll sell. For context, films at Pixar and Disney, Illumination’s main rival, routinely cost $200 million to make.
One of those Disney and Pixar productions, “Inside Out 2,” remained a box office success, earning $30 million for a second-place finish. The animated sequel about a teenage girl’s emotional life is the summer’s biggest hit, earning $533.8 million domestically and $1.2 billion worldwide (it passed “Minions” to become the fifth highest-grossing animated film in history). Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One,” aimed at older audiences, earned $21 million this weekend for a third-place finish, bringing the horror prequel’s domestic gross to $94.4 million.
Box office analysts believe the movie industry is getting back on track after a terrible start to the summer, in which top-rated films like “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa” flopped, causing ticket sales to drop nearly 28%. Things are changing now, with new installments in franchises like ‘Despicable Me’, ‘Inside Out’, ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘Bad Boys’ filling the gap – revenues are now down 17%.
“What a difference a few tough players can make,” said Paul Degarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “They’ve really moved the needle and you can feel the momentum building.”
That’s good news for other major studio releases like “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Twisters,” which hit theaters this month.
A24’s “MaXXXine,” a horror thriller about a killer set in 1980s Hollywood, also opened on Independence Day, debuting to $6.7 million for a fourth-place finish, while Angel’s “Sound of Hope: The Story” Studios of Possum Trot,” a faith-based drama about the members of a rural church and the foster children they help, earned $3.2 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $6.8 million. Utah-based Angel Studios scored an outrageous hit with last summer’s “Sound of Freedom,” aimed at Christian audiences and opening on July 4, 2023, before grossing more than $250 million. Given its humble beginnings, don’t expect “Sound of Hope” to come anywhere close to that kind of success. “MaXXXine” also suffered from a more muted start, opening slightly below projections, allowing the film to debut to just over $8 million. Most of the movie’s audience was made up of men between the ages of 18 and 34, and “MaXXXine” was strongest in coastal cities like New York and Los Angeles, as well as in Austin, Texas, where Alamo Drafthouse, a movie theater chain that focuses on cinephiles, over-indexed.
Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s latest exercise in quips, pyrotechnics and vehicle destruction, rounded out the top five. It earned $6.5 million to bring its domestic haul to $177.4 million.
Meanwhile, Kevin Costner’s precious western ‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’ looks ready to saunter off into the sunset without much baggage. The film, a $100 million passion project that Costner mortgage on his land earned $5.5 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to a disastrous $22.2 million. A second part of what will eventually become a four-film series is scheduled for August. Costner is in production on a third chapter, but after audiences rejected the first, questions remain about the commercial viability of his labor of love.
That’s not the case with “Despicable Me,” which has shown remarkable staying power and spawned multiple sequels and spinoffs since the first film was released in 2010. All of these films opened in the top spot and the series has become virtually synonymous with the Fourth Film. of July, with almost every episode debuting during that period.
“It’s a great debut for a franchise that’s now in a lot of installments,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s chief distribution officer. “People all over the world love Gru and the Minions and find them smart, adorable and hysterically funny.”
The success of “Despicable Me 4” continues the trend for Illumination, which has produced hits such as “The Secret Life of Pets,” “Sing” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and has become one of the most trusted brands in movies. . Orr praised the company and its founder Chris Meledandri for “keeping their finger on the pulse of what the public wants.”
The latest ‘Despicable Me’ adventure brings back Steve Carell as Gru and introduces new characters in the form of Will Ferrell (as a French villain named Maxime Le Mal) and Sofia Vergara (who plays Maxime’s partner in love and crime). But it’s the Minions, the adorable, anarchic, gibberish-spewing creatures that have captured the hearts of children and become Illumination’s mascot in the process. When asked if there might be more “Despicable Me” films and spinoffs in the future, Orr responded firmly. “Absolutely,” he said. “Especially after a debut like this.”
