Variety’s Rebecca Rubin breaks down a muted July 4th holiday weekend at the box office with a tepid U.S. opening for Universal and Illumination’s “Minions and Monsters” but a solid turnout for indie Angel Studios’ “Young Washington.” And Variety‘s K.J. Yossman explains why Comcast’s Sky has struck a deal to buy U.K. broadcaster ITV for $2.1 billion.
For “Minions and Monsters,” the good news is that the film is already performing well in several overseas territories. Domestically, however, it registered the lowest opening weekend of the “Despicable Me” franchise to date with $36 million.
“It might be a little bit of a case of franchise fatigue,” Rubin says. “This is a franchise that tends to be pretty popular overseas. It opened last weekend in a few territories, and so the movie has made around $160 million globally so far. And so it’s hard to knock that kind of business, because [‘Minions’] doesn’t have the biggest production budget compared to some other animated properties like the ‘Toy Story’ movies are much more expensive. This one cost $85 million. So it’s definitely a disappointing start, especially at the domestic box office. But it’s not necessarily a big financial wipeout.”
