So last week we didn’t give you a box office report. Don’t worry, nothing much happened. With it being Fourth of July weekend newcomers Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL opened and tried to dethrone Jurassic World and Pixar’s Inside Out. Didn’t happen.
This week is different with the arrival of Minions. Leave it to another Universal Pictures release to unseat another Universal release (though, after box office actuals were tallied, Inside Out was the box office champ for July 4th by about $500k over Jurassic World). Nevertheless, it is just another example of Universal’s franchise dominance this year. First it was Fifty Shades of Grey ($569 million worldwide). Then came Furious 7 (which currently sits as the fourth most-successful movie release of all time). Pitch Perfect 2 ($183M US). And the reigning domestic box office champ of 2015, Jurassic World.
Minions opened to #1 with an estimated $115.2M from 4,301 theaters (making it the widest released film of 2015 thus far). Internationally, it had a one-week head start in 26 markets and added 30 more this weekend to ratchet the total to $280.5 million. Nearly $400 million after two weeks in release – not too shabby.
The $115.2 million total is enough to make Minions the second biggest animated opening of all time, passing the likes of Shrek 2 ($108M) and Toy Story 3 ($110.3M). Shrek the Third still maintains supremacy with $121.6M. However, it would only gross $799M worldwide. I have a feeling Minions will gross between $850M to $900M.
Elsewhere on the top 10, found horror movie The Gallows made $10 million, while Ryan Reynolds’ Self/Less failed to match estimates and finished with $5.4 million. I don’t think Ryan Reynolds will complain too much after the reaction he received at Comic-Con with the footage of the “Merc with a Mouth,” Deadpool.
Terminator Genisys had a hard time keeping an audience as it fell nearly 50% to take $13.7 million. Magic Mike XXL dropped as well, but it opened to lower numbers than its 2012 predecessor to begin with, so a 25% doesn’t sound too bad until you compare the performances of both movies.
The biggest surprise of the weekend may be the performance of Baahubali: The Beginning. The first part of a two-part Indian epic opened at 236 locations and grossed $3.5 million with a $15t,148 per-screen average, which was the second best per-screen average for a top 10 film (Minions was number one).
Upcoming this weekend we have Marvel’s Ant-Man and Trainwreck from Judd Apatow and Amy Shumer. I don’t think Ant-Man won’t reach the opening heights of last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy ($94M). A $60M+ opening wouldn’t be surprising, but a figure less than that would be seen as a disappointment for Marvel Studios.
Full top ten below.
01. Minions – $115.2M
02. Jurassic World – $18.1M
03. Inside Out – $17.1M
04. Terminator: Genisys – $13.7M
05. The Gallows – $10M
06. Magic Mike XXL – $9.6M
07. Ted 2 – $5.6M
08. Self/Less – $5.4M
09. Baahubali: The Beginning – $3.5M
10. Max – $3.4M
