By: William Li

After waiting seven years, children and families went bananas cheering on the yellow Minions in the all-new 2022 movie, “The Rise of Gru.” The movie played on 4,391 screens in North America, bringing in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales.

This long-awaited film has beaten the previous record holder: “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which made a staggering $115.9 million in its first four days in 2011. But the Transformers were left in the dust by the new movie about banana-loving creatures. 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 is doing extraordinarily well.”

This film 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: Rise of Gru” encourages more and more families to go to the movie theaters.

“Families feel very comfortable bringing all their kids to the theater,” Orr said. “These results speak for themselves.”

“Minions 2” attracted all ages to the theater, even the very young. According to Post Trak surveys, 12% were under the age of ten.

The spinoff of the popular “Despicable Me” series was delayed two years because of the pandemic. The sequel to the 2015 film “Minions” was initially slated for a July 2020 release. While many other animated family films opted for streaming or hybrid releases, “Minions,” much like “Top Gun: Maverick,” stayed the course and waited for an ideal time to launch only in theaters.

“This became an event. It was a holiday weekend, the release date was perfect, the marketing was spot on,” Dergarabedian said. “And everyone knew this was going to be in theaters only.”

Sources: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/06/1109965615/latest-minions-movie-set-a-box-office-record-for-the-july-4th-weekend#:~:text=FADEL%3A%20Minions%20return%20this%20weekend,for%20the%20July%204%20weekend.