Well, that's a lot of bananas. Over 100 million bananas. And by bananas, we of course mean dollars, as Minions: The Rise of Gru absolutely crushed the weekend box office. The long-awaited prequel-sequel to the Illumination animated film series was the number one movie at the domestic and international box office this weekend, crushing such mammoth releases as Jurassic World Dominion and Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. Who is going to tell Mr.Presley and the indomitable Tyrannosaurus Rex that they are kings no longer?
The film brought in estimated three-day earnings of $108.5 million dollars and estimated four-day earnings of 127.9 million dollars. Minions: The Rise of Gru will also take the number one spot worldwide with an estimated weekend through Sunday revenue of 195.7 million dollars with over 202.2 million dollars worldwide cumulative earnings to date. This is some big news for such little, yellow creatures.
Minions: The Rise of Gru was met with mixed critical reviews, having a 72% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the film is a big hit with audiences, with a 92% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Much of the success of the film is perhaps owing to Gen Z's growing up with the Despicable Me franchise. The latest installment follows future supervillain Gru, at this point only 12 years old, as he befriends the minions, who will one day aide in his schemes.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is a sequel to the spin-off series based on Despicable Me, which was released in 2010. The film, which stars Steve Carell as Gru, a hapless super-villain who adopts three daughters, was hugely popular upon its initial release and spawned several sequels. But the breakout star of the film was, of course, Gru's minions. And it seems that they still hold us transfixed by their cute but eerie gaze.
In addition to Minions, Jurassic World: Dominion continues to make headway at the box office, crossing the $800 million dollar mark at the global box office. In addition, Top Gun: Maverick hit a milestone at the global box office, earning an additional $35 million and pushing overall earnings to $1.1 billion.
Minions: The Rise of Gru now holds the eighth-highest opening weekend for an animated film domestically of all time, knocking down the equally meme-y Shrek 2. Given the film's success, who knows what Illumination has in store for the Minions franchise.