Box office: ‘Despicable Me 4’ sees fireworks over 4th of July weekend with $230 million globally

After three weekends of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” dominating to become the biggest blockbuster of the year, another animated sequel took over the 4th of July weekend. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Universal released Illumination Entertainment’s animated sequel “Despicable Me 4,” once again starring Steve Carell as the voice of Gru, into 4,428 theaters on Wednesday. After making $27 million on Wednesday, and another $20.4 million on July 4, the franchise favorite earned another $75 million (estimated) over the three-day weekend for a five-day total of $122.6 million, including Wednesday and Thursday. With that, the “Minions” franchise holds three of the biggest Fourth of July openings and the biggest since “Minions: The Rise of Gru” opened with $107 million in 2022.

Even though reviews were mixed at best with 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences rated it higher, going by its “A” CinemaScore.

“Despicable Me 4” opened in 52 additional markets, including Mexico, Spain and Brazil, and managed to bring in $73 million in international box office this weekend with Mexico producing the best numbers, accounting for $12.6 million of that amount. “Despicable Me 4” has grossed $229.5 million globally through Sunday, including a few areas where it opened earlier than in North America.

Despite dropping to second place against the new animated sequel, Disney-Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” held on with another $30 million (down 48%) for a four-week domestic total of $533.8 million. It’s already the highest-grossing movie of 2024, but it’s making a play to surpass the $574.9 million made by “The Super Mario Bros Movie” last year, as 2023’s second–highest grossing movie after “Barbie.” It also already crossed $1.2 billion worldwide, with another $78.3 million from overseas markets this weekend for an international total of $683.1 million.

Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” took third place with an estimated $21 million in its second weekend, down 60%, bringing its domestic total to $94.4 million, which should allow it to cross the $100 million mark this coming week. It added another $21.1 million overseas this weekend for a global total of $178.2 million.

The finale of Ti West‘s horror trilogy, “MaXXXine,” starring Mia Goth, hit 2,450 theaters on Friday, where it grossed $3.2 million, some of that coming from previews earlier in the week. Reviews were generally positive, helping to drive up interest for the movie’s opening and helping it achieve an estimated $6.7 million over the three-day weekend for a fourth place opening. That’s better than the $3.1 million opening for “Pearl” in 2022 and the $4.3 million opening of “X” earlier that year. Although it received a not so great “B” CinemaScore, better than the “B-” received by “Pearl,” the movie should be able to still make a play to beat the $11.8 million domestic take of “X.”

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence‘s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” dropped to fifth place with $6.6 million, down 37% in its fifth weekend, with a running domestic total of $177.4 million. It added another $8.2 million internationally this weekend, for an overseas total of $182.8 million and global gross of $360.2 million.

Kevin Costner‘s Western “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1,” fell to sixth place with $5.5 million (down 50%) with $22.2 million grossed so far domestically. That isn’t very good for a movie that cost upwards of $100 million, with the second chapter coming out in August.

Angel Studios released the true-story drama “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” into 2,200 theaters on Thursday, where it made $3.6 million in its first day, and then it made another estimated $3.2 million over the weekend to open in seventh place with a four-day total of $6.8 million. As with many faith-based films, it received an “A+” CinemaScore, which paired with Angel’s “Pay it Forward” campaign could give the movie better legs.

The Telugu-language sci-fi action film “Kalki 2898 AD” dropped to eighth place with $1.8 million, down 65% from its opening weekend, with it currently at $16.5 million just in North America.

Yorgos Lanthimos‘s anthology “Kinds of Kindness” expanded nationwide into 920 theaters on Friday, but it didn’t play as well in wide release, making just $860,000 (down 45%), which wasn’t enough to remain in the top 10, with just $3.8 million grossed so far.

Roadside Attractions released the violent Indian action-thriller “Kill” into 828 theaters on Thursday, where it made $170,000 its opening day, but then it only made $385k over the weekend, not enough to get anywhere near the top 10 with just $550k in its first four days.

Most players in the box office prediction game guessed the top three movies correctly, and also had “MaXXXine” in fourth place, although it’s still so close with “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” for that position that we may see a different result come Monday.

The June 28 game had six players with perfect six-for-six predictions, but of those six, “Micah” had the best point score.

On Friday, Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum star in Greg Berlanti‘s rom-com “Fly Me to the Moon,” plus there are other odds and ends that you can read about in Gold Derby’s weekend preview on Wednesday.

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