'Minions' On Their Way To An Incredible Opening Weekend
After strong Thursday night previews, Universal's Minions are rocking their way to the top of the domestic box office with an estimated $110M opening weekend.
Thursday evening, the little yellow critters started their theatrical run with an impressive $6.2 million after previews. On Friday, the spinoff comedy opened nationwide in 4,301 theatres and early estimates show it racked up $42 million.
Recent forecasters have penned Minions in for a potential $110 million opening weekend. If that total is reached, the Despicable Me spinoff will be the fourth film this year to debut above the $100 million mark — joining Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World. Two of them three are Universal releases.
To compare Minions with its predecessors; the first Despicable Me opened with a $56.3 million weekend in 2010, going on to finish with $251 million in the United States. Its sequel, Despicable Me 2, started its run with $83.5 million in 2013, finishing with a $368 million domestic total.
As of now, Minions has already crossed the $200 million mark internationally from 43 markets after opening in 18 international new markets on Wednesday and Thursday. If it continues to draw audiences over Saturday and Sunday, Minions could become the second or third best animation opener in the United States. Experts predicate it will likely fall short of the all-time record, which is currently held by Shrek the Third with $121.6 million, followed by Pixar's Toy Story 3 with $110.3 million.
