adminMINIONS ruled the weekend box office, racking up $115,2 million in North America for the second-best animated film opening in history.
The Universal and Illumination Entertainment spin-off of ‘Despicable Me’ missed the domestic record set by Shrek the Third’s $121,6-million kickoff in 2007 but continued animation maestro Chris Meledandri’s winning streak at the multiplexes.
What makes Meledandri so valuable to studios is that he keeps budgets low. Minions cost $74-million to produce, a modest amount considering that Pixar and DreamWorks Animation routinely spend north of $100-million on their animated features.
Nick Carpou, Universal’s domestic distribution chief, said he was made aware of the Minions’ cultural currency this weekend while on an outing to a mall. A store featuring plush toys prominently displayed the Despicable Me characters.
The opening weekend crowd for Minions was 59 percent female, 55 percent under the age of 25, and 60 percent were families.
Minions also enjoyed a sprawling roll-out, debuting in 4,301 cinemas. It took a chunk out of some of the turbo-charged blockbusters still kicking around the circuits.
Jurassic World slid 54 percent to $18,1-million, bringing its Stateside haul to $590,6-million, and Inside Out dipped 43 percent to $17,1-million, pushing its US total to $283.6-million. – TimesLive.
Online Reporter