Its raining....minions?
Minions is another huge success story in a banner year for distributor Universal. In addition to that, the spin-off/prequel has cemented the Despicable Me franchise as the one to beat for animation (a 3rd movie in the Despicable Me story canon is releasing in 2017). But back to Gru's yellow sidekicks, they amassed a potent $46 million on Friday. That edges out Toy Story 3's $41.9 million opening Friday for the biggest opening day ever for an animated flick, as well as Shrek the Third's $38.5 million opening day. However, Shrek The Third's current opening weekend record (for an animated title) of $121.6 million is based on a weekend when kids weren't out of school yet, whereas Minions may be more front-loaded thanks to kids being out of school. It earned an "A" CinemaScore despite middling reviews (56% on Rotten Tomatoes). I think the movie will earn around $114 million for the weekend.
Once again, Inside Out and Jurassic World were neck-and-neck for second place, but both fell off larger than normal thanks to the arrival of Minions. Inside Out was down 57% to $5.4 million, while Jurassic World was off 55% to $5.3 million. It's going to be close once again, but looking at which movie will be affected least by the new movie, I think Jurassic will have the edge. But both are expected to pull in $17-$18 million for the frame.
Horror flick The Gallows opened in fourth place with a decent $4.5 million Friday. Warner Bros. seventh release of the summer opened slightly higher than The Lazarus Effect ($3.8 million) from earlier this year, but only managed around half of Insidious - Chapter 3's $10.5 million opening Friday from last month. Considering the budget is likely small, Gallows probably will turn a tidy profit, but considering how front-loaded this genre usually is, I'd only expect $10.5 million for the weekend.
Terminator: Genysis rounded out the Top 5 with a 62% Friday-to-Friday decline to $4.1 million. Expect it to jump ahead to fourth place with $13.5 million, which would represent a not-bad (for the genre) 50% decline for the weekend. Surprisingly, Magic Mike XXL had a strong hold, off just 42% from last Friday to $3.6 million, in what could be a $10 million second weekend, a drop of less than 25% from its front-loaded opening weekend.
Down in seventh place, Tarsem Singh's Self-less debuted with mediocre numbers, just $1.96 million, in what will likely be a weekend around $5 million and will probably fall behind Ted 2 for eighth place on the weekend. Ted 2 is likely to pull in around $5.5 million in seventh place, while independent foreign release Baahubali: The Beginning, clocked in a $1.3 million opening day from just 236 locations (an opening weekend of $3.5 million is expected). Max will likely round out the Top 10 with around $3.5 million also, after dropping 58% from last Friday (thanks to Minions) to $1.1 million.
