While Minions: The Rise of Gru has been lighting up the domestic box office over the Fourth of July weekend, the film has been making similar waves overseas. Across 61 markets this weekend, Illumination's latest film drummed up a cume of $93.8 million, nearly matching its domestic performance and contributing to its massive worldwide total of $202.2 million. These cute, yellow, overall-donning henchmen are taking over the world and setting some massive records in many of the countries they release in.
To further emphasize the impression the Minions have made overseas, Minions: The Rise of Gru was the biggest animated opening in the pandemic era for a whopping 52 markets. This means it beat out titles like Illumination's other big hit Sing 2 whose own impressive $402.97 million worldwide gross seems easily passable at this point. Better still, in eight international markets - Argentina, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, U.A.E., Others Middle East, Cyprus, Vietnam - the Minions set the record for the biggest opening weekend by an animated film ever with another four placing it as the second-biggest.
Another 18 markets marked it as Universal's biggest animated opening, while 19 saw it become Illumination's biggest. Considering that includes the pre-pandemic Minions from 2015, that's an incredibly impressive feat. Much of the international cume was carried by new openers, which contributed $81.6 million. Among the holdovers where the film has been out for some time, Australia stands out in particular for how well the film has held on in the country. It generated $5.6 million over the weekend, bringing the total to $12.2 million and officially marking the best hold among the top films on the market.
Among the other notable international marks for Minions: The Rise of Gru is the Middle East where the film swept the record for the biggest animated opening ever in all territories. In Argentina, the film not only surpassed animated features but nearly all features ever, becoming the third-biggest opening of any film in the country. Multiple countries saw the film even approach Frozen 2's high mark, but the biggest shock came in Poland where the film beat out Spider-Man: No Way Home for the biggest pandemic opening day! Even the #GentleMinions trend has had an impact on box offices worldwide. The success of the film in Israel was reportedly helped by this trend, making it the country's highest-grossing animated opening at $1.6 million.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is the prequel-sequel that tells the story of how the Despicable Me protagonist, Gru (Steve Carell), got his villainous groove. Set in the 1970s, it follows a young Gru and his four Minions – Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto – on a crazy plot to establish himself as a villain on the rise. He attempts to join the group he admires most, the Vicious 6 after they oust their leader, but when his chance at infamy goes horribly wrong, he realizes that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is currently in theaters.