Minions & Monsters Opens to $13.75M Wednesday
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- Minions & Monsters posted an estimated $13.75M opening day without previews, according to Deadline, making it the fourth-best Wednesday opening for an animated July title behind Despicable Me 2 ($35M), Despicable Me 4 ($27.2M), and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($13.79M).
- The Illumination title (produced by Chris Meledandri, directed by Pierre Coffin) earned a 90% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score—the best reviewed in the 16-year franchise's history.
- Industry tracking had forecast an $80M opening, with exhibitor estimates ranging from $60M to $90M; the film cost a net $85M before global P&A spend.
- Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 5 landed at No. 2 for Wednesday with an estimated $7M–$8M, bringing its running domestic cume to roughly $326M in its second week.
- The Despicable Me 2 five-day Independence Day opening record stands at $143M, with Despicable Me 4 at $122.6M—setting the bar against which the new film's full holiday run will be measured (July 4 falls on a Saturday this year, a configuration last seen in 2020, 2015, and 2009).
- The film already pulled in more than $10M from 10 offshore territories last weekend, including France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, ahead of its U.S. debut.
- Angel Studios/Wonder Project's Young Washington—starring Andy Serkis, Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Kingsley, Kelsey Grammer, and William Franklyn-Miller—opens Friday, adding another family-aimed title to the holiday frame.
Why it matters: The opening undershoots the $80M tracking forecast, putting pressure on the film to over-index across the July 4 holiday frame given its $85M net production cost—yet its franchise-best 90% critics score gives Universal a messaging win even if the dollar number disappoints relative to prior Despicable Me/Minions launches.
