Universal and Illumination’s army of Minions is taking over the box office for Independence Day weekend.
“Minions & Monsters” claimed the No. 1 spot on Friday with $16 million from 4,243 North American theaters. Through the weekend, the animated sequel should gross $39.5 million domestically. In addition to its earnings since its July 1 release, that should push the film’s North American total to a soft $64 million. Luckily for Universal, “Minions & Monsters” is expected to pull in $87 million overseas by Sunday.
The “Despicable Me” franchise has historically been a big ticket earner. The last film in the series, 2024’s “Despicable Me 4,” reached $972 million at the worldwide box office, while the last standalone Minions film, 2022’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” did $940 million worldwide. The yellow henchman’s first solo bout, 2015’s “Minions,” stands as the highest-grossing film in the family at $1.15 billion worldwide.
“Minions & Monsters” sees the titular evil doers become wannabe filmmakers in the 1920s and search for horrifying monsters to include in their creature feature. Cast members include Pierre Coffin, Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan and Phil LaMarr. Coffin also co-directs with Patrick Delage. He also co-wrote the script with Brian Lynch.
