Theater owners are preparing for more Minion mayhem.
“Minions & Monsters” will lead the box office over the July 4 weekend, with the seventh installment in Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me” franchise aiming for $80 million from 4,000 North American theaters during the five-day holiday frame. Exhibitors and rival studios are mixed on where “Minions” will end up, with projections ranging from $60 million to $90 million.
Box office watchers anticipate that attendance across the movie theater business might be slower than the typical holiday weekend since July 4th lands on Saturday. Instead of going to cinemas during the busiest day of the week for moviegoing, Americans will likely be attending barbecues and setting off fireworks to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday. Around the globe, World Cup matches could be another distraction from the big screen.
In any case, “Minions & Monsters” is tracking a softer start in Universal’s kid-friendly series, which has enjoyed lucrative commercial success around Independence Day. The comedic property, which revolves around mischievous yellow critters and their reformed-villain leader, has only grown in popularity since 2010’s “Despicable Me” opened to $56 million. By comparison, the two most recent entries, 2022’s spinoff sequel “Minions: The Rise of Gru” and 2024’s “Despicable Me 4,” launched to $123 million and $122 million, respectively, over the same five-day holiday stretch. (Universal always gets a jump on the holiday weekend with “Despicable Me” installments by putting them in theaters on Wednesday.) Both of those films became juggernauts, with the second “Minions” earning $940 million globally and the fourth “Despicable Me” amassing $972 million by the end of their runs. “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which holds the record for the biggest opening over Fourth of July weekend, benefitted from the #GentleMinions craze, a viral TikTok trend that encouraged teenage moviegoers to see the film while dressed in suits.
