The Fourth of July fireworks aren’t the only thing going off with a bang this week, as Illumination’s latest franchise entry Despicable Me 4 bursts onto the cinema scene at No. 1, and it is expected to hit $122 million across its five-day domestic opening for the holiday weekend ($75 million three-day). The new Gru crew sequel is Illumination’s 12th animated feature to open on top of the North American charts; the most No. 1 opens of any animated franchise.
Opening across 4,428 locations, DM4 debuted Wednesday with an estimated $28M and $20.4M on Thursday, July 4 (+28% compared to Minions: Rise of Gru‘s $16M performance on the holiday in 2022 and +61% over Despicable Me 3‘s $12.7M in 2017). Early predictions pegged this entry at a $110-120M five-day sprint.
DM4 opened in 52 overseas markets this weekend, including Spain, Mexico and Brazil,. According to Deadline, the film was able to gross over $229.5M worldwide by the end of the weekend.
Meanwhile, Pixar’s record-setting box-office powerhouse Inside Out 2 (Disney) remained a strong contender, totting up an estimated three-day of $33.1 million (-46%, 3,760 theaters) in its fourth week, pushing it past the half-billion mark Stateside with Thursday’s $7.2M take. The pic, which already set a new animation speed record for $1 billion globally is pegged to hit $536.9 million by curtain call Sunday. The film’s worldwide gross is now over $1.216 billion.
The Garfield Movie (Sony/Alcon) also held on in the Top 10 for its seventh week of release, posting an additional ~$670K Monday-Wednesday. The famous fat cat is purring comfortably with $90.3M domestic/$215M worldwide. Falling just out of the top ranks are Paramount’s hybrid family flick IF, up ~$540K in the same period (cume $110.3M d / $185M ww) and Crunchyroll anime import Blue Lock: Episode Nagi, which opened June 28 and has totted up $1.337M in NorAm so far.
[Sources: Deadline. Box Office Mojo]
