“Minions: The Rise of Gru,” a sequel to the 2015 animated hit from Universal Pictures, topped the North American box office, drawing in family audiences and dethroning the Warner Bros. biopic “Elvis.”
The film made $108.5 million in its opening weekend across 4,391 domestic theaters, according to an estimate from Comscore Inc. on Sunday. That far exceeded the Boxoffice Pro forecast of as much as $89 million for the three-day weekend. The studio had estimated it would make $60 million over four days, including the Fourth of July holiday.
While the movie beat the first-weekend ticket sales of Walt Disney Co.’s “Lightyear” and Paramount Pictures’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” it fell just short of its predecessor. “Minions” made about $116 million at the U.S. and Canadian box office during its first weekend in July 2015.
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 has a 72% 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. Disney and Pixar’s “Lightyear” did far worse than expected when it debuted, and ticket sales have plunged since it premiered in mid-June. It landed in sixth place with $6.6 million over the weekend, Comscore estimated.
— 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.
