This Independence Day Gru and his group of minions are starting box office pyrotechnics.
Opening on Wednesday, “Despicable Me 4,” the most recent addition to Universal and Illumination’s immensely popular cartoon series, attracted $27 million Steve Carell as Gru, a recovering supervillain turned secret agent, returns in the sequel and is set against Will Ferrell as a French baddie called Maxime Le Mal. Still, the most fascinating creatures are the minions—those anarchic, highlighter-yellow critters—who have appeared in not just the “Despicable Me” movies but also a slew of spinoffs. Look for “Despicable Me 4” to make over $120 million during the five-day holiday weekend.
For movie theaters, which have had a rough start to the summer after promising titles like “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa” failing, that excellent performance is encouraging news. But with Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2, Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” and Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One,” things have been turning around over the last few weeks and audiences are returning. Wednesday saw “Inside Out 2” grab $7.1 million, raising its domestic total to $496.5 million. Now the third highest-grossing animated picture released domestically; on Thursday, it could surpass another benchmark and reach $500 million. Pickering $4.4 million, “A Quiet Place: Day One” brought its US gross to $68.6 million. With “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” netting $1.2 million, its domestic profits come to $169.1 million.
Elsewhere, Kevin Costner’s epic Western brought in $1.1 million. Having spent a week in theatres, the financial catastrophe movie has so far made $14.8 million. Along with co-writing and starring in “Horizon,” Costner helped to partly fund the multi-part production. Though viewers reject it, a second episode is scheduled to premiere in August and third chapter filming is already under way.
The “Despicable Me” series has come almost to define the Fourth of July. Opening in this slice of the calendar, the 2022 spinoff, “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” broke records to rank greatest picture launch for the holiday with $123 million for the five days. Other movies in the series—including 2017’s “Despicable Me 3 ($99 million debut), 2013’s “Despicable Me 2 ($83.5 million debut),” and 2010’s “Despicable Me ($56 million debut)—all premiered around the same holiday season.
The July 4 box office show last year included “Sound of Freedom, a low-budget, faith-based movie that was an unexpected commercial powerhouse,” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a flop that spelled the end for the once-mighty franchise.”
Series staple Chris Renaud oversaw “Despicable Me 4,” and co-directed Patrick Delage. Apart from Carell and Ferrell, the vocal ensemble include Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Sofía Vergara, and Stephen Colbert.
