‘Despicable Me 4’ Scores $44.6 Million in 2nd Box Office Weekend

Universal/Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” continues to deliver at the box office, adding $44.6 million in its second weekend to push it to $211 million in domestic grosses.

That keeps the film roughly on pace with the two-weekend total of “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which grossed $370 million domestically in 2022. Globally, the film’s total stands at $437.8 million after adding $88 million from overseas markets.

“Despicable Me” has now also become the first animated franchise to pass $5 billion in lifetime box office grosses, hitting the mark with six installments released over the past 14 years, including two “Minions” spin-offs. It stands in the top 5 of all-time franchises worldwide and top 10 domestically.

In an impressive second place is Neon’s satanic horror film “Longlegs.” Previously expected to earn an opening weekend of around $9 million, it has exploded to a stellar $22 million start from 2,510 theaters.

Starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage in a tale of an FBI agent investigating a series of gruesome murder-suicides that appear to be connected by a sinister figure named Longlegs, the film has been elevated by Neon’s effective digital marketing campaign and viral word-of-mouth on social media.

With a C+ on CinemaScore and a 66% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, that hype may not carry past this weekend, but it is already a success as it is a lock to become Neon’s second-highest grossing film in studio history behind only Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite.”

Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” is in third with $20.8 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its spectacular total to $572 million domestic and $1.35 billion worldwide. In the coming days, it will pass the $1.36 billion total of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” to become the second-highest grossing animated film of all time.

Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” is in fourth with $11.8 million in its third weekend, continuing a solid run at the box office with $116 million in domestic grosses and $220 million worldwide.

Completing the top 5 is Sony/Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” which isn’t finding a very high altitude with a $10 million opening weekend from 3,356 theaters. As expected for a romantic comedy set around the Apollo 11 mission, more than half of the film’s opening weekend audience was over the age of 45.

With an A- on CinemaScore from this older crowd, Sony, which is only handling distribution, is still banking on “Fly Me to the Moon” legging out as an alternative for boomer moviegoers to upcoming titles like “Twisters” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” that will attract their younger cohorts. Universal’s “Ticket to Paradise” had such a run, turning a $16.5 million opening into a $68.2 million domestic total.

But with a reported $100 million paid by Apple to acquire the film, “Fly Me to the Moon” would be labeled a bomb if it had been picked up by anyone other than the tech-based studio, which has spent hundreds of millions on films like “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Argylle” that it has brought to theaters through distribution deals with legacy studios like Sony.

The long-term goal for Apple is for these films to bring more attention and subscriptions to Apple TV+, though whether they are getting a sufficient return on investment is unknown as the performance of these films on streaming is not divulged.

Finally, A24 released the drama “Sing Sing” in limited release, grossing $137,119 from four theaters for a solid per theater average of approximately $34,000. The film stars Colman Domingo and is based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program in Sing Sing prison. It has received critical acclaim since its TIFF premiere last year with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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