NEW YORK — After a historically bad first half of the year, the box office is suddenly booming.
“Despicable Me 4” Illumination Animation’s sequel topped the holiday weekend with $75 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday and $122.6 million since its Wednesday debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Independence Day holiday weekend for the Universal Pictures release further extends Minions’ considerable box office reign, arguably the most profitable force in cinema today. And it also continued a summer trend in Hollywood.
Although overall ticket sales are down more than 40% from pre-COVID 19 pandemic levels at the start of the summer movie season, theaters have recently seen a succession of blockbusters. After Sony “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” exceeded expectationsPixar’s “Inside Out 2” quickly unlocked $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide, becoming the first release since “Barbie” to reach that mark. Last weekend, Paramount’s prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” also exceeded expectations.
With “Deadpool & Wolverine” with a $160 million release later this month, Hollywood’s summer is looking up.
“If you look at the industry climate about eight weeks ago, it’s very different than it is today,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Music says the difference a day makes. What a difference a month made.”
It helps to have Minions at your disposal. Since debuting in the original 2010 film “Despicable Me,” each entry in the franchise — including two sequels and two “Minions” spinoffs — appears to have grossed around $1 billion. The previous four films have grossed between $939 million (“2022’s Minions: Rise of Gru”) and $1.26 billion (“2015’s Minions”) globally.
That run helped give Illumination founder and chief executive Chris Meledandri one of the most enviable track records in Hollywood. “Despicable Me 4,” directed by Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage, returns the voice cast led by Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig and focuses on more Minion mayhem. Reviews (a recent 54% on Rotten Tomatoes) haven’t been particularly good for the latest installment, which includes a witness protection plan and a group of Minions transformed into a squad of superheroes. But in their 12-year run, little has slowed the Minions down.
“This is one of the most beloved franchises, frankly, in the history of cinema, and certainly animation,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of distribution. “Chris Meledandri and Illumination are paying attention to what families and audiences around the world want to see.”
Family films are driving the box office. “Despicable Me 4” performed strongly despite the still considerable drawing power of “Inside Out 2.” In its fourth weekend of release, the Pixar sequel grossed another $30 million domestically and $78.3 million abroad.
“Inside Out 2,” with $1.22 billion in ticket sales to date, is easily the biggest hit of the year and is quickly climbing the rankings of all-time animated releases. It is currently the fifth animated release worldwide.
Instead of cannibalizing the opening weekend of “Despicable Me 4,” “Inside Out 2” may have helped families get back into the habit of going to the movies.
“What happened, I think, was that the release calendar finally got into a good rhythm,” Dergarabedian said, referring to the confusing film schedule of last year’s strikes. “It’s all about momentum.”
The continued strong sales of “Inside Out 2” were enough to place the film in second place over the weekend nationwide. Last week’s best-selling new film, “A Quiet Place: First Day,” fell to third place with $21 million in its second weekend, with another $21.1 million coming from foreign theaters. It was a steep 60% drop, even though the Paramount prequel racked up $178.2 million worldwide in two weeks.
The string of hits has caused some studios to raise their predictions for the summer movie season. Heading into the most profitable season in theaters, analysts were predicting a $3 billion summer, below the more typical $4 billion mark. Now it seems likely to be closer to $3.4 billion.
The other big release of the weekend was “MaXXXine” by Ti West the third in a series of A24 horror films starring Mia Goth. At 2,450 locations, “MaXXXine” grossed a franchise-best $6.7 million in ticket sales. The film, which follows “X” and “Pearl” (both released in 2022), stars Goth as a 1980s Hollywood star being hunted by a killer known as the Night Stalker.
Angel Studios, which last year released the unexpected summer hit “Sound of Freedom,” struggled to find the same success with its latest Christian film, “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot.” It debuted with $3.2 million.
Kevin Costner’s big-budget gamble “Horizon: An American Saga” didn’t do much to change its fortunes in its second weekend. The first chapter in what Costner hopes will be a four-part franchise — including a chapter two that Warner Bros. will release in August – grossed US$5.5 million in its second weekend. The film, which cost more than $100 million to make, grossed $22.2 million in two weeks.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final national numbers will be released on Monday.
1. “Despicable Me 4,” $75 million.
2. “Inside Out 2”, $30 million.
3. “A Quiet Place, Day One,” $21 million.
4. “MaXXXine,” $6.7 million.
5. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $6.5 million.
6. “Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1,” $5.5 million.
7. “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” $3.2 million.
8. “Kaiki 2898”, $1.8 million.
9. “The Bikeriders,” $1.3 million.
10. “Kinds of Kindness,” $860,000.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
