‘Minions’ Pulls in Families, Sets July Fourth Box-Office Record

(Bloomberg) -- “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” a sequel to the 2015 animated hit from Universal Pictures, smashed expectations and recorded the best-ever box office performance for a film opening near the Fourth of July, showing families are ready to return to movie theaters despite Covid-19.

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• “Minions” set a record for the four-day weekend, generating $123.1 million in domestic ticket sales, Comscore Inc. said Tuesday. That beat the performance of the 2011 film “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which made $115.9 million over four days when it premiered close to the US holiday.

Key Insights

• “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” tells the origin story of Gru, the fictional supervillian voiced by Steve Carell. In this film, he’s an 11-year-old boy plotting to take over the world from his basement. It had a 73% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, better than the 55% rating of the first “Minions” film. Both movies are spinoffs of Universal’s 2010 film “Despicable Me.”

• The movie’s performance helped quash concerns that parents worried about Covid-19 aren’t ready to bring their kids back to theaters. Walt Disney Co.’s “Lightyear” did far worse than expected when it debuted in mid-June, and ticket sales have plunged since. It landed in sixth place with $7.6 million over the extended weekend, Comscore said.

• “Minions” took its place atop the box office from the Warner Bros. biopic “Elvis.” That movie fell to third place and made $22.7 million over four days, Comscore said. “Top Gun: Maverick,” which premiered in May, is still recording strong ticket sales, taking in $32.3 million from Friday to Monday.

• Disney will likely regain the box office crown next weekend, however. It plans to release the Marvel film “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which could be one of the biggest-selling films of 2022.

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• See the schedule for upcoming releases.

• See Boxoffice Pro’s long-range forecast.

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