Despicable Me 4 surprised absolutely no one on the planet who pays attention to box office returns, dominating the weekend with a three-day take of $75 million and bringing $122 million since opening on Wednesday. As I said last week, these films just print money, and while Film Twitter might raise their hands in the air wondering “why” they’re so popular, they are non-demanding entertainment with broad appeal. Worth noting the first Despicable Me came out 14 years ago (you are that old), so this franchise remains in healthy shape. I just hope that next time around (and we know there’s going to be a next time), the filmmakers can maybe settle on giving the film one plot instead of, like, ten.
If you want to know just how dire the industry is right now as the result of two strikes that were totally avoidable, we don’t have another animated film until The Wild Robot and Transformers One open at the end of SEPTEMBER. No, you did not misread that. Even worse, there are no family-friendly PG outings until Harold and the Purple Crayon (you smirk, but a villain wanting to use Harold’s purple crayon to take over the world sounds exactly like my type of jam) comes out in August. We’re also lacking a PG-13 event that parents take their kids too (except for maybe Twisters), which probably explains one reason Inside Out 2 has been overperforming to the crazy extent that it has been.
On that note, I can now say with almost certainty that Inside Out 2 is going to trounce Incredibles 2 to become the biggest animated movie ever stateside. In fact, I realized when looking up numbers last night that it is currently outpacing Barbie. As things stand, Riley’s mind has raked in $533 million. Again, that’s just nuts (though I remain puzzled as to how this one cost more to make than Furiosa), but you’re still going to see those “Is Pixar DOOMED???” thumbnails in your YouTube feed. Grifters gotta grift.
On the R-rated side of things, we have MaXXXine, which brought in $6.7 million. While that number sounds small, this is the third entry in a series with a niche following (and, like Despicable Me 4, apparently has ten different plots). A24 is going to be just fine. Our only other newcomer is Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot. “Possum Trot” sounds like a Zootopia character, but this is actually another Angel Studios release, continuing their “Sound of” cinematic universe. But again, as I have to say way too often, there was no conspiracy theory bullshit angle to exploit here, so this is another well-intentioned faith-based underachiever. It has made just $6 million since opening Wednesday (MaXXXine sat out on the July 4th holiday and opened on Friday).
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline
1.) Despicable Me 4 (Uni) 4,428 theaters, Fri $27.2M Sat $26.8M Sun $20.9M 3-day $75M, Total $122.6M/Wk 1
2.) Inside Out 2 (Dis) 3,760 (-680) theaters Fri $10.6M (-38%) 3-day $33.1M (-42%) Total $536.9M/Wk 4
3.) A Quiet Place: Day One (Par) 3,688 (-20) theaters, Fri $7.1M (-69%) Sat $7.8M Sun $6M 3-day $21M (-60%), Total $94.3M/Wk 2
4.) Bad Boys Ride or Die (Sony) 2644 (-668) theaters, Fri $2.2M (-23%) Sat $2.6M Sun $1.7M 3-day $6.55M (-37%) Total $177.3M/Wk 5
5.) MaXXXine (A24) 2,450 theaters, Fri $3.1M, Sat $2M Sun $1.5M 3-day $6.7M/Wk 1
6.) Horizon (NL) 3,334 theaters, Fri $1.8M (-56%) Sat $2M Sun $1.65M 3-day $5.48M (-50%), Total $22.1M/Wk 2
7.) Sound of Hope…(Angel) 2,200 theaters, Fri $1.1M, Sat $1.1M, Sun $1M, 3-day $3.2M, Total $6.79M/Wk 1
8.) Kalki 2898 AD (Prath) 625 (-424) theaters Fri $600K (-65%) Sat $684K Sun $550K 3-day $1.83M (-68%) Total $16.5M/Wk 2
9.) The Bikeriders (Foc) 1,562 (-1,130) theaters, Fri $420K Sat $490K Sun $390K 3-day $1.3M (-61%), Total $19.3M/Wk 3
10.) Kinds of Kindness (SEA) 920 (+430) theaters, Fri $270K (-%) 3-day $863K (-45%) Total $3.8M/Wk 2