Box Office: The Minions Just Posted Their Worst Opening

Being the number one movie in America is not always a victory. This weekend it came with an asterisk. Minions and Monsters opened on top of the July 4th box office with an estimated $36.4 million over the three-day frame, and that is the lowest opening in the entire Despicable Me franchise history, the Associated Press reported.

The little yellow characters have opened as high as $115.7 million. This time they barely cleared the sequels and squeaked past a third weekend of Toy Story 5. It was a strange, soft holiday at the movies, and the calendar takes some of the blame.

Here is how the weekend actually shook out.

A franchise low on top

Minions and Monsters, from Illumination and Universal, earned that estimated $36.4 million for the three-day weekend and $61.4 million across its first five days after a Wednesday launch, per Rotten Tomatoes. Studio actuals came in a touch higher at around $37 million for the weekend, from 4,243 theaters, with Screen Rant citing a five-day figure as high as $64.5 million.

For scale, the franchise opened Minions to $115.7 million in 2015 and Minions: The Rise of Gru to $107 million in 2022. Even the original 2010 Despicable Me opened bigger, at $56.4 million. So this debut sits below every prior entry, Screen Rant noted.

The cruel irony

Here is the part that stings for Illumination: this is the best-reviewed movie the franchise has ever made. Minions and Monsters sits at 91 percent Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, beating the original’s 80 percent. The critics loved it. The holiday crowd just did not show up in the usual numbers.

Globally the picture is healthier, with about $160 million in the debut week. But domestically, projections had run as high as $130 million to $180 million before release, which makes the actual opening a real miss against expectations.

Blame the calendar

The most-cited excuse is a good one. July 4 fell on a Saturday this year, normally the single biggest moviegoing day of the week, and instead of heading to theaters, families spent it at barbecues and fireworks celebrating America’s 250th birthday. When your peak day becomes a national cookout, even a beloved franchise loses its best window.

The overall weekend reflected it, falling roughly 24 percent versus the same frame last year. The holiday that usually powers the box office this time worked against it.

The rest of the chart

Toy Story 5 held second with an estimated $31 million in its third weekend, a modest 56 percent drop that pushed its domestic total past $366 million. The surprise was third place: Young Washington, a patriotic drama about George Washington’s early military service timed to the 250th anniversary, opened to an estimated $20.8 million, riding the same birthday mood that kept families out of other theaters.

Further down, Supergirl continued its collapse, cratering 74 percent in its second weekend to about $9.6 million and a domestic cume near $58 million. Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day took fifth with around $6 million, crossing $105 million domestic in its fourth week, according to Box Office Mojo.

The bigger picture is still healthy

A soft holiday weekend is not a sick industry. Summer 2026 is running nearly 12 percent ahead of summer 2025, propped up by low-budget breakouts, the horror hit Obsession has crossed $245 million domestic and Backrooms has passed $190 million. The business is doing fine. It just had an off weekend at the worst possible moment on the calendar.

That context matters, because a franchise-low Minions opening reads like a crisis in isolation and like a scheduling fluke in full. This weekend was the second reading.

The weekend is a useful reminder of how much the calendar quietly shapes box office fortunes. Studios spend years planning release dates around holidays, assuming a long weekend means more free time and bigger crowds, but a holiday that falls on the biggest moviegoing day of the week can actually pull audiences away from theaters and toward cookouts and fireworks instead. The best-reviewed Minions movie ever did not underperform because it was bad. It underperformed because it opened into a national party, which is a scheduling lesson every studio just filed away for the next milestone Fourth.

Why This Matters

The July 4th weekend is one of the biggest windows in the movie calendar, so when it comes in 24 percent below last year, studios pay attention to why. The answer here looks less like audiences abandoning theaters and more like a specific holiday quirk, a Saturday Fourth during a milestone national celebration, which is reassuring for an industry that is otherwise up double digits on the summer.

It also shows how unpredictable the theatrical business has become. The best-reviewed Minions movie ever underperformed, a patriotic drama nobody was tracking opened to $20 million, and cheap horror movies are quietly outgrossing tentpoles all summer. Brand and budget no longer guarantee the outcome, and the calendar can matter as much as the movie.

The NewsSparq Takeaway

Three things to hold onto.

One, it was a franchise-worst opening. Minions and Monsters won the weekend at an estimated $36.4 million, the lowest debut in Despicable Me history, despite being the best-reviewed entry at 91 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Two, the Saturday Fourth hurt everyone. The holiday landed on the biggest moviegoing day of the week, and America’s 250th-birthday cookouts pulled the whole weekend down about 24 percent from last year.

Three, the summer is still winning. With Toy Story 5 past $366 million and breakouts like Obsession and Backrooms, summer 2026 is up nearly 12 percent on 2025. One soft weekend is a blip, not a trend.

The Minions have opened to more than a hundred million dollars before. This time they won the weekend with a third of that and a barbecue got part of the credit. Sometimes the box office story is not the movie. It is the date on the calendar.

Sources: AP via The Washington Times, Rotten Tomatoes, Screen Rant, Box Office Mojo.

By Md Danish, Founder and Editor in Chief, NewsSparq

The Minions Just Posted Their Worst Opening Ever, and a July 4th Barbecue Is Partly to Blame