"Minions: The Rise of Gru" Breaks 4th of July Weekend w/ $125M Opening

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Minions: The Rise of Gru Opens with $108.5 Million Weekend; Poised to Shatter 4th of July Record
by Chris Nashawaty - Box Office News
July 3, 2022


Those little yellow guys racked up some serious green over the red-white-and-blue weekend. Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth and latest installment in Universal’s hit Despicable Me franchise, debuted to a stunning $108.5 million in its first three days of domestic release.

It is currently on pace to make $127.9 million by the time the Monday holiday is over — a number that would push it past 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($115.9 million) as the biggest Fourth of July debut ever in North America.







The box-office fireworks sparked by the pint-sized pranksters signaled an encouraging rebound for animated family films in the wake of Lightyear’s disappointing opening for Disney last month.

The first standalone Minions film bowed to $115.7 over three days back in the summer of 2015, and The Rise of Gru, which traces how Gru evolved from a mischievous young boy into a grown-up supervillain, seems to have more or less matched that performance.




But this time around, the box-office competition (thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis, and Jurassic World Dominion) was fiercer, which makes this result feel like even more of a triumph.

The Rise of Gru, which features the voices of Steve Carell, Taraji P. Henson, and Michelle Yeoh, won over audiences with a straight-A CinemaScore grade, while snagging a robust $22,005 per-screen average in 4,931 theaters.

The little guys fared nearly as well overseas, where the movie opened to $93.7 million, putting its worldwide gross for its first three days at $202.2 million. Where will the Minions go from here? It’s too early to tell, but for comparison’s sake, their first 2015 outing finished its theatrical run with $336 million domestically and $1.16 billion worldwide.







In second place over the holiday session was Top Gun: Maverick with $25.5 million. The high-flying Tom Cruise vehicle just kept soaring in its sixth weekend, dropping a mere -13.7% from the previous frame.

The Paramount blockbuster is projected to take in $32.5 million once Monday’s ticket receipts are counted. Unspooling in 3,843 theaters, the PG-13-rated sequel to Cruise’s 1986 flyboy sensation earned a $6,647 per-screen average, putting its current domestic haul at $564 million.



Overseas, Top Gun 2 has raked in $544.5 million so far, putting its combined worldwide gross at just under $1.11 billion.

The film, which has been breaking records left and right, added another milestone this week as it passed 2019’s The Lion King ($543.6 million) to become the twelfth-biggest domestic grosser ever.







Swiveling its hips into a third-place finish was Warner Bros.’ Elvis, which took in $19 million over the weekend. Director Baz Luhrmann’s PG-13-rated musical biopic of the King of Rock N’ Roll slipped -39.1% from the previous frame.

The film, which stars Austin Butler as Elvis Presley and Tom Hanks as his Svengali manager Colonel Tom Parker, earned a $4,832 per-screen average at 3,932 locations. That haul and its relatively modest week-over-week drop-off was especially impressive considering that the film appeals to an older demographic that has been less inclined to return to movie theaters during the pandemic.

Elvis’ two-week domestic take now stands at $67.3 million. Overseas, the title has added $46.2 million in ticket sales to date, putting its worldwide cume at $113.2 million.







In fourth place was Universal’s Jurassic World Dominion with just under $15.7 million. Although the latest dino chapter was panned by critics, who dinged the PG-13 action-adventure with a lowly 30% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences continue to turn out.

The third and final film in the Jurassic World trilogy shed -41.5% from the previous session, scoring a $4,117 per-screen average in 3,801 theaters. After four weeks, the tentpole has made $331.8 million domestically.

Overseas, where Dominion opened a week earlier, it has now pulled in $492.7 million, putting its new global cume at $824.5 million.







Rounding out the top five was the Universal horror flick The Black Phone with $12.3 million. The R-rated chiller, which stars Ethan Hawke as a serial killer in a deeply unsettling mask, fell -48% from the previous weekend, while scaring up a $3,897 per-screen average at 3,156 locations. Its two-week domestic tally is now $47.5 million.

Internationally, The Black Phone has made a hair under $27 million in its first two weeks, putting its current worldwide cume at $74.4 million.







Also of note were two indies that debuted within the top 15:

Bleecker Street Media’s Mr. Malcolm’s List, a PG-rated period romance starring Freida Pinto, opened in seventh place with $851,853.

Roadside Attractions’ The Forgiven, an R-rated Moroccan-set drama starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain, bowed in fifteenth place with $132,565 in a more limited run.

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July 1-4, 2022: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. Minions: The Rise of Gru $125,190,000
2. Top Gun: Maverick $33,000,000 / $571,475,367
3. Elvis $23,500,000 / $71,820,000
4. Jurassic World Dominion $19,700,000 / $335,864,935
5. The Black Phone $14,470,000 / $49,634,325
6. Lightyear $7,867,000 / $106,655,663
7. Mr. Malcolm's List $1,001,658
8. Everything Everywhere All at Once $551,974 / $67,015,157
9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness $483,000 / $410,634,349
10. Jug Jugg Jeeyo $308,000 / $1,033,000