Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | July 6, 2026
Admit it, you all thought that Minions & Monsters was going to open to a billion dollars. Those damn banana-loving pills have been at the forefront of a money-printing machine for 16 years. The Despicable Me franchise has grossed over $12.3 billion worldwide. It’s one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time, ahead of Dragonball and Jurassic Park! And this new movie has been embraced by the critics! It turns out that all you need to do to get film nerds to love you is make an animated version of Babylon that’s full of classic movie references. And yet this film, which stars George freaking Lucas, opened to a franchise low.
That’s right: Minions & Monsters $61.4 million in the United States and Canada over the holiday weekend. It was initially projected to gross around $80 million. Did parents just decide enough was enough with these maniacs? Were they too busy enjoying hot dogs and fireworks? But do not pour your banana milkshakes out for the minions just yet. Worldwide, it’s grossed almost $160 million, which is close to double its budget of $85 million. These movies are typically made more cheaply than, say, the average Disney animated feature. So, Illumination won’t have to shut down the Universal Studios attractions any time soon.
Keeping things patriotic, Angel Studios released Young Washington, a historical biopic about the first President that stars Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis, and Kelsey Grammar. It debuted at number three with $20.8 million from 2,700 locations.
Things were bad for Supergirl, which cratered in its second week with a staggering 74.1% drop in grosses, bringing its domestic total to $58.5 million. With $100 million worldwide, the movie is still quite far from earning back its reported budget of $170 - 186 million.
Olivia Wilde’s The Invite added 21 more cinemas to its limited run and saw a hefty 111% increase: $800,708 overall, which is a per-screen average of $28,596.
In limited release news, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, a documentary about the legendary poet, grossed $23,197 from four cinemas; and Sherman’s March, the legendary 1986 documentary about one man’s inability to make a movie about William Tecumseh Sherman’s Civil War campaign through Georgia, got a fitting re-releasee for the 4th of July weekend and took in $10,000 from one location.
This coming week sees the release of bloody horror sequel Evil Dead Burn and the live-action remake of Disney’s Moana.
You can check out the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
