The summer movie season is typically when studios release their biggest tentpoles, the projects they’re confident can be major box office hits. Unfortunately, this year’s crop hasn’t really delivered the desired results. With the exception of Pixar’s Toy Story 5, which posted the largest opening weekend of the year, many of the traditional summer releases have underwhelmed commercially, with Supergirl and its $68 million worldwide debut being the latest example. As the calendar turned to July, there was hope that the always-reliable Minions could get things back on track. Heading into the holiday weekend, Minions & Monsters was projected to earn around $80 million domestically over its first five days. But now that the numbers are in, it’s yet another high-profile summer release that’s underperforming.
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According to Deadline, Minions & Monsters earned around $61.4 million domestically over the five-day holiday weekend (the film opened in theaters on Wednesday, July 1st). Around $36.4 million of that is set to come from the traditional Friday-Sunday frame. Not only is that well below the original estimates, it marks a new low for the Despicable Me franchise, which historically has been right at home in the Fourth of July window. See how Minions & Monsters‘ 5-day start compares to the other installments:
| Movie | Domestic Box Office (First Five Days) |
| Minions | $145.5 million |
| Despicable Me 2 | $143 million |
| Minions: The Rise of Gru | $140.6 million |
| Despicable Me 4 | $122.6 million |
| Despicable Me 3 | $99 million |
| Despicable Me | $72 million |
| Minions & Monsters | $61.4 million |
Minions & Monsters Box Office Explained: Can It Have Strong Legs?
It was always surprising to see Minions & Monsters projections rank among the lowest for the Despicable Me IP. Not only has the brand been Illumination’s flagship franchise since the studio started releasing feature films, the Minions themselves have proven to be one of the strongest box office draws in recent memory. The first Minions spinoff, released in 2015, grossed $1.159 billion worldwide, while 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru brought in $940.4 million globally. Heading into the summer, Minions & Monsters was pegged as a possibility for the $1 billion club, but at that time, the thinking was it would have a much stronger opening.
Seeing Minions & Monsters come in well below the estimates is an even bigger surprise. Besides the franchise’s aforementioned box office track record, Minions & Monsters received widespread praise. Its Rotten Tomatoes score, a sterling 91%, is actually the highest in Illumination history. Animated family films can be critic-proof because the target audience isn’t usually poring review scores (see: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie), but positive word of mouth typically doesn’t hurt a movie’s chances. Minions & Monsters was hailed as an entertaining love letter to old-school Hollywood, using the Minions to parody classic films. Despite the strong reception, audiences didn’t rush out to the theater.
There are a few factors that could explain this performance. For starters, Fourth of July fell on a Saturday this year, and families might have been busy traveling and making holiday preparations, leaving them little time to head out to the movies. The World Cup is still going on, and that’s been attracting a lot of attention. Additionally, Minions & Monsters‘ core demographic was just treated to Toy Story 5 two weeks ago. The close proximity between the two animated titles might have hurt Minions‘ prospects, as there may not have been as much demand for another animated movie so soon — even one starring the Minions.
While Illumination and Universal were probably hoping for stronger results here, Minions & Monsters isn’t a disaster. The film is budgeted at just $85 million (Toy Story 5‘s price tag was $250 million, as a point of comparison), so it never needed to break box office records in order to turn a profit. Minions & Monsters will be just fine as long as it has decent legs, and there’s a good chance of that happening. Disney’s live-action Moana remake is coming out next week, but other than that, there aren’t any new releases targeting specifically families for a while. And with business for Toy Story 5 starting to go down (this weekend’s estimate: $32.2 million), Minions & Monsters should be the highest-profile animated title throughout July. Once we get past the holiday and families aren’t as busy, hopefully it will hold well and ultimately go down as another success for Illumination — although coming in as a franchise low could raise questions about Despicable Me‘s future.
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