- “Despicable Me 4” topped the holiday weekend box office with $75 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday and has grossed $122.6 million since its release on Wednesday, according to studio estimates.
- The animated sequel’s success continues a growing popularity of summer films, including Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Paramount’s prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One,” and comes after a poor box office performance in the first half of the year.
- “Inside Out 2,” with $1.22 billion in ticket sales to date, is currently the No. 5 animated release worldwide.
After a historically poor first half of the year, the box office has suddenly rebounded.
Illumination Animation’s sequel “Despicable Me 4” tops the holiday weekend with $75 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday and $122.6 million since its release on Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Independence Day holiday weekend gross for the Universal Pictures release further extended the box-office reign of Minions, arguably the most reliable force in today’s movies. And it also continued a strong summer streak for Hollywood.
Steve Carell, Will Ferrell and others preview ‘Despicable Me 4’
Though overall ticket sales are down more than 40% from pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, the summer movie season has seen a number of recent hits return to theaters. After Sony “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” performed better than expectationsPixar’s “Inside Out 2” quickly surpassed the $1 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales, making it the first release to reach that figure since “Barbie.” Last weekend, the Paramount prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” also beat expectations.
With the release of “Deadpool and Wolverine” later this month grossing $160 million, Hollywood is looking to have a good summer season.
“If you look at the mood of the industry eight weeks ago, it’s very different than it is today,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The song says what a difference a day makes. What a difference a month makes.”
The Minions appear in a scene in “Despicable Me 4,” which topped the box office over the holiday weekend with $75 million in ticket sales. (Illumination and Universal Pictures via AP)
It helps to have Minions around. Since debuting in the original 2010 “Despicable Me,” each entry in the franchise — including two sequels and two “Minions” spinoffs — is nearly guaranteed to gross $1 billion. The last four films have grossed between $939 million (2022’s “Minions: Rise of Gru”) and $1.26 billion (2015’s “Minions”) globally.
That run has helped Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri build one of the best track records in Hollywood. Directed by Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage, “Despicable Me 4” features the return of a voice cast led by Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig and more Minion mayhem. Reviews (54% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) weren’t particularly good for the latest installment, which features a witness protection plot and a group of Minions transformed into a superhero squadron. But in their 12-year run, nothing has slowed the Minions’ momentum.
“This is one of the most beloved franchises in the history of film and certainly animation,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s distribution chief. “Chris Meledandri and Illumination have an eye for what families and audiences around the world want to watch.”
Family movies are taking over the box office. “Despicable Me 4” performed strongly despite the still considerable lucrative power of “Inside Out 2.” In its fourth weekend of release, the Pixar sequel grossed $30 million domestically and $78.3 million overseas.
“Inside Out 2” has become the year’s biggest hit with $1.22 billion in ticket sales so far and is quickly climbing the all-time rankings. For animated releaseIt currently ranks as the number 5 animated release worldwide.
Rather than destroying the opening weekend for “Despicable Me 4,” “Inside Out 2” has helped get families back into the habit of going to theaters.
“I think the release calendar has finally gotten into a good rhythm,” Dergarabedian said, referring to the disruption to film schedules caused by last year’s strikes. “It’s all about momentum.”
Continued strong sales of “Inside Out 2” pushed the film to second place for the weekend domestically. Last week’s top new film, “A Quiet Place: Day One,” slipped to third place with $21 million in its second weekend while earning $21.1 million from foreign theaters. That was a massive 60% drop, though the Paramount prequel has earned $178.2 million worldwide in two weeks.
The string of hit films has caused some studios to raise their forecasts. Summer movie seasonHeading into theaters’ most lucrative season, analysts had predicted a $3 billion summer, well below the typical $4 billion mark. Now, it’s likely closer to $3.4 billion.
The weekend’s second top new release was Ti West’s “Maxine,” the third in A24’s series of slasher films starring Mia Goth. At 2,450 locations, “Maxine” grossed $6.7 million in ticket sales, the franchise’s best. The film follows “X” and “Pearl” (both releasing in 2022), in which Goth plays a 1980s Hollywood starlet who is hunted by a killer called the Night Stalker.
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Angel Studios, which released the unexpected hit “Sound of Freedom” last year, struggled to find similar success with its latest Christian film, “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” which debuted with $3.2 million.
Kevin Costner’s big-budget film “Horizon: An American Saga” did little to turn its fortunes around in its second weekend. The first of what Costner hopes will be a four-part franchise — including a second chapter to be released by Warner Bros. in August — earned $5.5 million in its second weekend. The film, which cost more than $100 million to make, has grossed $22.2 million in two weeks.
According to Comscore, ticket sales are estimated at theaters in the US and Canada from Friday through Sunday. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
- “Despicable Me 4,” $75 million.
- “Inside Out 2,” $30 million.
- “A Quiet Place Day One,” $21 million.
- “Maxine,” $6.7 million.
- “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $6.5 million.
- “Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1,” $5.5 million.
- “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” $3.2 million.
- “Kaiki 2898,” $1.8 million.
- “The Bikeriders,” $1.3 million.
- “Types of Kindness,” $860,000.
