Despite opening at No. 1, Minions & Monsters didn’t get the Hollywood ending it hoped for over the weekend. The film — a sendup of old Hollywood — launched to a $61.4 million, 5-day opening over the long July 4 weekend, and to a franchise low, three-day number of $36.4 million. That’s a comedown from two years ago, when Despicable Me 4 brought in $120 million for the five days. And in 2022, Minions: The Rise of Gru brought in $122 million for the five days.
Overseas, the news is better, where it has grossed $98.43 million after expanding to 71 markets.
It’s the second high-profile film in a row to underwhelm, though Minions is still a hit, and things were far worse for last week’s Supergirl, which bombed with $37.1 million. This weekend, the DC Studios film fell to No. 4 with $9.6 million, a 74 percent decline, and has a domestic total of $58.5 million and a worldwide total of $100.5 million.
News continues to be sunny for Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 3, which came in at No. 2 with around $31 million. It stands at $764.3 million globally, the No. 3 film of the year so far. $366 million of that is domestic. Disney is particularly high on its Japanese opening of $14.6 million, the biggest ever for a Hollywood studio in the country.
Angel Studios’ and Wonder Project’s new entry, Young Washington, is a sleeper hit, taking the No. 3 spot with around $16.5 million. It earned an A Cinemascore from audiences, and was timed to America’s 250th birthday, and had boosters including Chris Pratt, who is uninvolved in the project, posting about it on social media. It stars William Franklyn-Miller and depicts the adventures of a 20-something George Washington.
Minions & Monsters is the latest spinoff of the Despicable Me movies and the seventh in the overall franchise that stands as the highest-grossing animated series of all time. Franchise co-creator Pierre Coffin directed and penned the script with Brian Lynch. Overseas, Minions & Monsters is bringing in around $87 million.
The film earned an A- Cinemascore from audiences, and sits at a 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Hollywood Reporter critic Frank Schreck writing that while it’s a bit “overstuffed,” that “for a good while at least, it’s surprisingly sophisticated and effective in its satirical humor, with so many visual gags and Easter eggs that you’ll need multiple viewings to catch them all, which is something that clearly won’t be a problem for Universal.”
Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day rounds out the top five, bringing in $6 million in its fourth weekend.
July 5, 8:40 a.m. Updated with Saturday grosses.
This story was originally published on July 4 at 8:59 a.m.
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