The holiday weekend started early for the banana-loving mascots of Illumination. With an official release day of Wednesday, ahead of a long, five-day weekend, Minions & Monsters kicked things off with an estimated opening-day total of $13.6 million, according to Deadline. The tracking for Wednesday through Sunday suggests the film could total up to $80 million.
The seventh film in the larger Despicable Me franchise received the best reviews of the bunch, earning an impressive 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and easily scoring a Certified Fresh rating. The positive write-ups from the critics should only help what are otherwise opportune circumstances for Illumination and Universal Pictures, which is opening the animated kids film over a long holiday weekend with no other major releases hitting theaters and last week’s top competition, Supergirl, still making headlines for its perceived underperformance.
Elsewhere on screens, Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5 is poised for another strong weekend as its domestic total has just climbed over the $300 million mark. Worldwide earnings on the hit have already cleared $600 million.
New Releases
Minions & Monsters
Director: Pierre Coffin
Distributor: Universal
The little yellow guys are back for the third installment of their Despicable Me spin-off series, this one a love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood and Lovecraftian horror. The animated movie runs 90 minutes and is rated PG. Minions & Monsters has been well received by critics, earning a “Certified Fresh” rating at Rotten Tomatoes with 90% of polled critics approving. The more exacting Metacritic score tells a less enthusiastic story with score of 67.
Here are Gold Derby’s predicted box-office rankings for the top five over the July 3–5 weekend:
1. Minions & Monsters – $68 million
2. Toy Story 5 – $35 million
3. Supergirl – $17 million
4. Young Washington – $15 million
5. Obsession – $6 million
