Universal’s Minions won the box office this weekend with a colossal $115.2 million in North America in 4,301 theaters – earning the title for the second biggest animated film opening in history.
The Despicable Me spinoff, with a $74 million production budget, falls right behind Shrek The Third’s $121.6 million debut in 2007, which remains No. 1 for the biggest debut of all time. Overseas, Minions scored first place with $124.3 million from 56 markets for a massive foreign total of $280.5 million and early global total of $395.7 million.
Minions follows the yellow guys who embark upon a thrilling journey that ultimately leads them to their next potential master, Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock), the world’s first-ever female super-villain. They travel from frigid Antarctica to 1960s New York City, ending in mod London, where they must face their biggest challenge to date: saving all of Minionkind from annihilation. The voice cast also includes Pierre Coffin, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan and Geoffrey Rush.
MINIONS Interview: Sandra Bullock on Playing Scarlet Overkill
Audience members, who were 59 percent female, 55 percent under the age of 25 and 60 percent families, gave the fun-family feature an A CinemaScore, while critics gave it a 54 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Audiences of all ages, and especially kids and families, just love these characters, and we had a tremendous marketing and merchandising effort,” said Universal domestic distribution chief Nick Carpou. “We have now opened three movies this year to over $100 million — Minions, Furious 7 and Jurassic World — something no other studio has done in history.”
Jurassic World took over the second spot at the box office in its fifth weekend with $18.1 million from 3,441 locations for a domestic total of $590.7 million. It is undoubtedly expected to become the fourth film in history to cross the $600 million mark domestically, following Avatar ($760.5 million), Titanic ($658.7 million) and The Avengers ($623.4 million).
In third and fourth place are Disney’s Inside Out and Paramount’s Terminator Genisys with $17.1 million and $13.7 million, respectively. The family feature generated a domestic total of $283.6 million in its fourth week, while the action film gathered a domestic haul of $68.7 million in its second week.
The weekend’s other new wide release was Entertainment 360 and Blumhouse Productions’ The Gallows in fifth place with $10 million across 2,720 theaters. The horror film, which cost under $1 million to make, centers on students who resurrect a failed high school play 20 years after a horrific accident in a small town.
Watch: Dave Morales Goes Backstage With Cast Of ‘The Gallows’
Directed by Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing, The Gallows received a 16 percent “fresh” score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and earned a C CinemaScore from moviegoers.
The weekend’s third new release was Focus Features’ Self/Less with an eighth-place finish, and a disappointing $5.4 million debut from 1,953 theaters. The science-fiction thriller, directed by Tarsem Singh and features Ryan Reynolds, about a radical medical procedure cost $26 million to produce.
Self/Less received a 20 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, while audience members gave it a B plus CinemaScore.
Top 10 Films at Weekend Box Office: July 10-12
- Minions — $115.2 million
- Jurassic World — $18.1 million
- Inside Out — $17.1 million
- Terminator Genisys — $13.7 million
- The Gallows — $10 million
- Magic Mike XXL — $9.6 million
- Ted 2 — $5.6 million
- Self/Less — $5.4 million
- Max — $3.4 million
- Spy — $3.0 million
