Minion fever isn't slowing down at the box office around the world, as Illumination Entertainment's newest animated film, Minions: The Rise of Gru, has now crossed the $400 million mark at the worldwide box office during its second weekend. The worldwide box office reach of Minions: The Rise of Gru expanded this week as the film opened on Wednesday in France to $7.1 million, becoming the biggest opening weekend for the country in 2022, with good word of mouth likely to keep the film's legs strong. In Belgium, the film also opened to $1.3 million, including previews, along the same numbers as the second and third Despicable Me films.
In Mexico, the film added $7.1 million to a cumulative total of $22.1 million, with a strong hold in other countries such as Argentina adding $6.2 million and Brazil's additional $2.5 million. In the UK and Ireland, the film gained an additional $5.2 million, behind Thor: Love and Thunder, to a total of $22.1 million. Minions, which held strong in its second weekend in Germany, saw a strong performance, dropping 5% to an additional $4.2 million in the country. In Australia, the film performed above previous Despicable Me films with $4.1 million this weekend. In contrast, the film gained an additional $2 million in Spain, performing below Despicable Me 3, but above the second film.
The lovable yellow companions to Gru were first introduced to audiences in 2010 with the release of the original Despicable Me film, and became instantly popular. The film branched out into a franchise with two additional sequels and spinoffs centering around the Minions themselves. As a result, the Despicable Me franchise has been highly lucrative for Illumination, with the previous Minions film earning over $1 billion at the box office back in 2015, despite its mixed reception. However, with the newest film's positive word of mouth from audiences, Minions: The Rise of Gru will likely continue with strong legs in the next upcoming weeks.
The film opened last weekend to $107 million, which bolstered confidence in animated family films at the box office after the financial disappointment of Lightyear earlier this summer. The popularity of the film's box office performance has also been reflected by the "GentleMinions" memes, which saw many teenagers attending the film in waves wearing suits. With the franchise still finding a large audience even after 13 years, Minion fever doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is now playing exclusively in theaters.