Minions & Monsters Opens to $63.5M Franchise-Low 5-Day
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Minions & Monsters opened to a $63.5M 5-day domestic start, well below the $80M tracking forecast and the lowest opening in the 16-year-old Despicable Me/Minions franchise — the previous 3-day low was the original's $56.3M in 2010.
- The film earned $16M on Friday (+48% from Thursday) at 4,243 theaters, easily No. 1, but trails July 4th openers Despicable Me 2 ($143M) and Despicable Me 4 ($122.6M).
- Minions & Monsters earned a 90% certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score and an A- CinemaScore — the best reviews in franchise history — despite the soft debut, with a production cost of $85M net before P&A.
- Toy Story 5 held second place in its third weekend with an estimated $30M 3-day (-58%), pushing its domestic cume to $365.3M.
- Young Washington from Angel Studios and Wonder Project debuted to an estimated $16M-$17M at 2,700 sites, ahead of its $15M projection, scoring 92% with audiences and 60% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Supergirl dropped 73% in its second weekend to an estimated $10M, bringing its 10-day domestic total to $48.8M — matching The Flash's second-frame decline.
- Including $37.6M already banked from ten overseas territories, Minions & Monsters is on track to clear $101M worldwide, with international markets historically delivering 60%-plus of the franchise's global grosses.
Why it matters: A 90% Rotten Tomatoes score and A- CinemaScore couldn't lift Minions & Monsters above the franchise's worst opening, and the $80M tracking miss signals even strong reviews can't guarantee turnout when a Pixar tentpole like Toy Story 5 ($365.3M cume) dominates the holiday corridor. With an $85M production budget and 60%-plus of the franchise's revenue historically coming from overseas, Universal's recovery path runs through the film's 69 international territories rather than the soft domestic numbers.
