Despicable Me 4 is a smash while MaXXXine breaks franchise records at the holiday weekend box office.
The weekend numbers are starting to roll in (via Deadline), and Despicable Me 4 is on track for a terrific $120 million 5-day opening, with a $72 million weekend gross, which is about what we predicted earlier this week. It’s looking to open in the same range as Despicable Me 3, although it’s going to wind up with a softer opening than Minions: The Rise of Gru, which opened to a huge $107 million 3-day weekend in 2022. Whatever the case, the franchise is still a big moneymaker for Illumination, and it’s the second smash animated movie of the summer after Pixar’s Inside Out 2. That runaway hit sequel is on track for $33.1 million this weekend, with it passing half a billion bucks at the domestic box office earlier this week.
Coming in third is A Quiet Place: Day One, which took about a 59% dip week to week, with a second weekend north of $20 million in the cards. Meanwhile, Ti West’s MaXXXine is on track for an $8 million weekend, which is significantly higher than the openings for the two previous films, X and Pearl. In fact, MaXXXine might make more in a single weekend than the last film, Pearl, did in its entire run.
So, what about Kevin Costner’s passion project, Horizon? Well, the news isn’t very good. After a soft opening, all involved hoped the film would show some legs at the box office, but sadly, the results seem somewhat mixed on that front. It looks like it will finish in sixth place with a $5.9 million weekend and a 47% drop. While anything under a 50% drop nowadays is considered decent, it can’t be denied that the film looks like it will top out at just over $30 million domestically, which is low for an epic western. Hopefully, the sequel, due in August, will do a lot better.
What are you going to see this weekend? Let us know in the comments!