At this weekend’s box office, Minions unsurprisingly pulled in a whopping $115.2 million. The competition for the Despicable Me spin off was simply obliterated in comparison, with Jurassic World in second place and Inside Out taking third with $18.1 million and $17.1 million respectively. However, it must also be noted that Minions was without much formal competition; Inside Out was already burning for four weeks, Jurassic World for five, and nothing particularly buzzworthy was released on the same weekend.
In a summer of spectacular seconds for the animation industry, Minions nabbed the second highest grossing opening ever for an animated film, just behind Shrek the Third’s $121.6 million. This comes after Inside Out secured its position as the second highest Pixar opening of all time.
Within the Despicable Me franchise itself, Minions also stands tall. Its predecessor, Despicable Me 2, pulled in an altogether impressive $83.5 million during its opening weekend, clearly dwarfed by Minions’ $115.2 million. Although Illumination is notorious for keeping its film budgets modest ($74 million for Minions), the marketing campaign behind the film was certifiably ginormous (at $593 million). When held next to this cost, the box office success of Minions pales a bit. However, this is all in terms of domestic gross, while the marketing budget is international. It doesn’t look nearly as terrible when placed beside a $395.7 million foreign gross. Now, the question of whether Minions will hit the big billion mark domestically remains.
The massive success of Minions comes as no surprise to the animation community. Despite the polarization of feelings towards the creatures within certain circles (from the Minion loathing of Tumblr to the Minion quote meme adoration of Facebook moms), Minions stand as a strong pop culture icon. Whether for better or for worse, Minions have permeated the very bedrock of American culture.
Illumination has never been an entity to turn its nose up at money. And so the questions stands… When will the sequel be announced?
Do you love the Minions? Let us know in the comments!
Edited by: Hannah Wilkes