Box Office Report: Despicably Popular

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | July 8, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | July 8, 2024 |

To the surprise of literally nobody, Despicable Me 4 made a lot of money. Universal and Illumination’s animated franchise is an unstoppable juggernaut of yellow mayhem and gibberish that may haunt parents for generations. How big is it? It’s the 14th highest-grossing franchise of all time. Yup, this thing has made more money than Avatar, Shrek, and Toy Story. That’s a lot of bananas.

The newest addition to the intricate lore, Despicable Me 4, brought in $122.6 million over a five-day weekend opening release. Sure, the reviews were pretty paltry this time around, but with a $229.6 million worldwide gross in one weekend for a movie with a $100 million budget, who cares? If this one isn’t one of the highest-grossing films of 2024 by the end of the year, I’ll be very surprised. But it’ll have a long way to go if it wants to get to the number one spot. Inside Out 2 is well ahead of the competition with over $1.21 billion in the bank (behind it in second place is Dune: Part Two with $711.8 million.)

Debuting at number four is MaXXXine, the final part in Ti West’s X trilogy. It earned $6.705,038 from 2,450 theatres, giving A24 another solid opening as they continue to push for more mainstream-friendly hits.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is the latest effort by Angel Studios to replicate the success of Sound of Freedom. This one’s a DailyWire+ production too, and one of its main producers is Letitia Wright from Black Panther. Huh. Inspired by a true story, the film is about a reverend and his wife who adopt 77 kids from foster care. It’s an inspiring faith-based drama but it’s also not QAnon conspiracy bait, so it didn’t inspire immediate devotion from viewers. It debuted at number seven with $3.21 million from 2,200 theatres.

Indian action-thriller Kill has earned a lot of buzz for being wonderfully violent and bone-cracking. In a post-John Wick world, we’re always hungry for more spleen puncturing and that’s certainly reflected in the grosses. It made $384,490 from 827 theatres. In limited release news: Hijack 1971, a South Korean disaster film about the hijack attempt of a Korean Air F27 airliner, earned $71,000 from 62 cinemas; a 70th anniversary 4k re-release of Seven Samurai, one of the greatest films ever made, grossed $19,000 from one location; and the drama Mother Couch brought in $9,150 from one place.

This coming week sees the release of the rom-com Fly Me to the Moon and the horror Longlegs.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.