Those little yellow guys racked up some serious green over the red-white-and-blue weekend.Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth and latest installment in Universal’s hit Despicable Me franchise, debuted to a stunning 108.5 million in its first three days of domestic release and is currently on pace to make 127.9 million by the time the Monday holiday is over—a number that would push it past 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon (115.9 million) as the biggest Fourth of July debut ever in North America.The box-office fireworks sparked by the pint-sized pranksters signaled an encouraging rebound for animated family films in the wake of Lightyear’s disappointing opening for Disney last month.
The first standalone Minions film bowed to 115.7 over three days back in the summer of 2015, and The Rise of Gru, which traces how Gru evolved from a mischievous young boy into a grown-up supervillain, seems to have more or less matched that performance.
Read full article