Minions Rule the Box Office on Independence Day

Gru and his gang of minions are setting off box office fireworks this Independence Day. "Despicable Me 4," the latest entry in Universal and Illumination's wildly successful animated franchise, opened to $27 million on Wednesday. The sequel brings back Steve Carell as Gru, a recovering supervillain turned secret agent, and pits him against Will Ferrell as a French baddie named Maxime Le Mal. Yet it's the minions, those anarchic, highlighter-yellow critters, who are the biggest attractions, having starred in not just the "Despicable Me" films, but also a series of spinoffs.

Look for "Despicable Me 4" to earn roughly $120 million over the five-day holiday weekend. That strong showing is welcome news for movie theaters, which have endured a bruising start to the summer after promising films like "The Fall Guy" and "Furiosa" bombed. Things have been turning around, however, with Disney and Pixar's "Inside Out 2," Sony's "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" and Paramount's "A Quiet Place: Day One" bringing back crowds over the last few weeks. On Wednesday, "Inside Out 2" nabbed $7.1 million, pushing its domestic gross to $496.5 million. The sequel is now the third highest-grossing animated film domestically; it should cross the $500 million mark on Thursday, rocketing past another milestone.

"A Quiet Place: Day One" picked up $4.4 million, bringing its stateside haul to $68.6 million. And "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" netted $1.2 million, which takes its domestic earnings to $169.1 million. Elsewhere, "Horizon: An American Saga," Kevin Costner's epic Western grossed $1.1 million. So far the film, which is a financial disaster, has earned $14.8 million after being in theaters for a week. Costner, who produced, co-wrote and stars in "Horizon," also partially self-financed the multi-part production.

Despite being rejected by audiences, a second installment is set to open in August and shooting on a third chapter has started. The "Despicable Me" franchise has become virtually synonymous with the Fourth of July. The 2022 spinoff, "Minions: The Rise of Gru," also opened in this sliver of the calendar, breaking records to become the highest film debut over the holiday with $123 million for the five days. Other films in the series, including 2017's "Despicable Me 3" ($99 million debut), 2013's "Despicable Me 2" ($83.5 million debut) and 2010's "Despicable Me" ($56 million debut), all bowed over the same holiday period. Last year, the July 4 box office featured a race between "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," a flop that spelled the end for the once mighty franchise, and "Sound of Freedom," a low-budget, faith-based film that was an unexpected commercial juggernaut.

"Despicable Me 4" was directed by series mainstay Chris Renaud and co-directed by Patrick Delage. In addition to Carell and Ferrell, the voice cast includes Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Sof?a Vergara and Stephen Colbert. The Business of EntertainmentBy Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office Editor JULY 4TH AM UPDATE: Illumination/Universal's Despicable Me 4 came in a little lighter than spotted, but strong enough at $27M at 4,030 theaters. While 5-day forecasts are always hard to project this far off, everything becomes clear by Friday. Even at this level, the fourth chapter of Gru/sixth Minions title could still see a $70M 3-day and $120M 5-day.

Interest in this bunch hasn't waned yet for audiences who gave it an A CinemaScore, the same grade as chapters 1 and 2, and a notch above Despicable Me 3's A-. Overall it's the fifth A for the Minions/Despicable Me franchise. Social Media analytics corp RelishMix reports a very strong social media universe for DM4 across TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram with 641.5M, 26% ahead of family animated comps, though behind the 1.6 billion of pre-Covid 2017's Despicable Me 3 as well as post-pandemic's Minions: Rise of Gru 's 668.4M. Over half of the cast on DM4 are activated on social including Sofia Vergara at 58.6M, Joey King at 37.8M, Maranda Cosgrove at 30.3M and Stephen Colbert at 29.5M. Says RelishMix, "Convo on DM4 runs positive, with the long-running franchise having built up an expectation with fans both young and old alike.

Some are excited with the promise of the new Mega Minions, a group of superhero hybrid minions that are new to this installment. One person comments, ' Despicable Me 4 with some touch of Fantastic 4 .' Others enjoy the breeziness of these movies, not asking much of their audience and divorced from reality in almost every way, especially in the current political epoch with Disney coming under fire for representing the opposite of that creative lifestyle. Another commenter say 'This thing will make a billion. One of the rare films I can trust not lecturing me about how to live my life.'" DM4 easily won Wednesday ahead of Inside Out 2 which did $7.3M yesterday at 4,440 theaters, -35% from Tuesday for a $496.6M cume. Look for the Pixar sequel to cross the half billion mark today stateside in its 21st day.

That's the fastest that any animated movie has ever hit that threshold, besting Pixar's previous 24-day run to $500M with 2018's Incredibles 2. Current outlook for IO2 is $31.7M fourth weekend, -45%, $46.3M 5-day and a total by Sunday of $535.6M. Paramount's A Quiet Place: Day One was third Wednesday at 3,708 locations with $4.3M , -33% from Tuesday and a running total of $68.4M. Expected 3-day is $22.3M (-57%) for the Lupita Nyong'o movie and $31.6M 5-day for a running cume by Sunday of $95.7M . Sony's Bad Boys: Ride or Die at 2,825 grossed $1.2M , -17% from Tuesday for a running total of $169.1M .

3-day looks like $6M , 5-day like $8.7M . Total by Sunday is $176.6M . New Line's Kevin Costner title Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 at 3,334 sites made $1.1M yesterday, for what looks like a $5.4M 3-day and $7.8M 5-day for a running total of $21.6M by Sunday. If this movie cost $50M (out of the franchise's total $100M before P&A), it's not even going to make that at the domestic box office in the end. Because it's July 4th, don't expect ticket sales to go into overdrive as many are sidelined with holiday activities.

DM4 is expected to ease around -20% if not less today, while Inside Out 2 should remain even with Wednesday. WEDNESDAY PM: So, surprise, surprise, but Minions are the lords of Independence Day. Illumination/Universal's Despicable Me 4 is looking at $28 million Wednesday, sans Tuesday previews (they weren't held), which is high enough to get the movie to an estimated $120 million over its first five days through Sunday. That's where tracking was spotting it, and it's an amount that underscores the continued upward nature of the current box office as event films crowd the schedule in the wake of the double Hollywood strikes. The Friday-Sunday take for Despicable Me 4 stands at $70M.

Rotten Tomatoes critics aren't fond of Despicable Me 4 at 53% Rotten, which is lower than Minions. Luckily for Illumination and Universal, those opinions did not prevent audiences from turning this franchise into a multibillion-dollar grossing phenomenon. Proof? The audience RT score for the fourthquel from director Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage is 89%. RELATED: The 20 Best Summer Movies Streaming On Max, Prime Video, Disney+ And More Despicable Me 4 is also going in 52 offshore markets this weekend, including in Mexico, Spain and Brazil. The pic has some $25M already in th