Despicable Me 4 stays comfortably atop North American box office
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ANIMATED comedy Despicable Me 4 held on to the top spot in the North American box office over the weekend with an impressive US$44.7 million take, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations estimated on Sunday (Jul 15).
That brought total ticket sales for Universal Pictures’ latest Minions-universe release to US$211.1 million in the US and Canada since its release last weekend. Will Ferrell joins the voice cast this time as aptly named supervillain Maxime Le Mal.
Overall, the Despicable Me/Minions franchise has crossed the US$5 billion mark in global ticket sales, the Hollywood Reporter said.
Meanwhile, Longlegs from indie studio Neon rode excellent reviews and a potent viral marketing campaign to an unexpectedly strong second-place opening.
The horror mystery took in US$22.6 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, a “phenomenal” opening for the genre and Neon’s best-ever result, Variety said.
Critics compared the marketing campaign for the film to the highly successful launch of 1999 cult hit The Blair Witch Project.
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Neon crafted a 1990s-style website and offered fans a phone number to call to hear a creepy message from Nicolas Cage, who stars in the tale of an FBI agent tracking a serial killer.
Last weekend’s No 2 film, Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2, dropped one place, with ticket sales of US$20.7 million. The coming-of-age film has now taken in US$572.6 million in North America and an additional US$777 million globally.
In fourth, also down one spot, was Paramount’s apocalyptic horror film A Quiet Place: Day One, at US$11.8 million. This third instalment in the series stars Lupita Nyong’o as a seriously ill woman in a New York invaded by extraterrestrial creatures with frighteningly keen hearing.
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In fifth was new Sony rom-com Fly Me to the Moon. Its US$10 million take was considered disappointing for a big-budget film starring the likes of Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson – who play a Nasa official and a marketing guru during the Apollo 11 mission – but Apple TV+ expects a boost when it streams the film.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
- Bad Boys: Ride or Die (US$4.4 million);
- Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One (US$2.4 million);
- MaXXXine (US$2.1 million);
- Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (US$1.3 million); and
- The Lion King, a 1994 reissue (US$1.1 million).
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