Families went bananas for Minions this weekend at the movie theater. Minions: The Rise of Gru brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America, Universal Pictures said Sunday. By the end of Monday's Independence Day holiday, it will likely have earned over $127.9 million, the AP reports. The film is on track to have the biggest opening ever for a July Fourth holiday weekend. Including international showings, with Minions: The Rise of Gru playing in 61 markets, its worldwide gross is sitting at $202.2 million through Sunday.
The spinoff of the Despicable Me series was delayed two years because of the pandemic; the sequel to the 2015 film Minions was originally slated for a July 2020 release. While many other animated family films opted for streaming or hybrid releases, Minions 2, much like Top Gun: Maverick, stayed the course and waited for an ideal time to launch in theaters only. And as with Top Gun the wait, it seems, was worth it. The voice cast features Steve Carell, reprising his role as Gru, Alan Arkin, Michelle Yeoh, and Julie Andrews as Gru’s mother. Critics were mixed to positive (it currently has a 72% on Rotten Tomatoes), but audiences were more enthusiastic, giving the Gru origin story an A CinemaScore. According to Comscore, the weekend as a whole will go down as one of the biggest of the pandemic era.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Minions: The Rise of Gru, $108.5 million.
- Top Gun: Maverick, $25.5 million.
- Elvis, $19 million.
- Jurassic World: Dominion, $15.7 million.
- The Black Phone, $12.3 million.
- Lightyear, $6.6 million.
- Mr. Malcolm’s List, $851,853.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once, $551,974.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, $390,000.
- JugJugg Jeeyo, $318,000.
(More
box office stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
