Families went bananas for “Minions, the rise of Gru” this weekend at the movie theatre as it brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales from 4,391 screens in North America.
Universal Pictures said Sunday that by the end of the Monday’s July Fourth holiday, it will likely have earned over $127.9 million.
The film is on track to become one of the biggest openings ever for a July Fourth holiday weekend, a record previously held by “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” which made $115.9 million in its first four days in 2011.
Including international showings, where “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is playing in 61 markets, its worldwide gross is sitting at $202.2 million through Sunday.
“It’s a tremendous debut,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “It’s playing very broadly across North America. Every single market doing extraordinarily well.”
This is just the latest in a string of successes for Universal’s family releases, including “Sing 2,” which has grossed over $406 million since opening in December, and “The Bad Guys,” which has made over $243 million.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru” serves as further proof that family audiences are willing to go back to the movie theatre.
“Families feel very comfortable bringing all their kids to the theatre,” Orr said. “These results speak for themselves.”
“Minions 2” attracted all ages to the theatre, even the very young. According to PostTrak surveys, 12% were under the age of 10.
“For many months there was this idea that family audiences were not going to come back to the theatre. We can put that to rest,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.
