The Despicable Me baddies ruled the charts this weekend, setting a record the second best animated opening of all time, with $115 million. They didn't beat out Shrek the Third's $121 million, but they did pass Toy Story 3's $110 million back in 2009. With non-superhero movies now beginning to cross $100 million in their opening weekends on a semi-regular basis (or at least a handful of times a year), I'm wondering whether this magic number of $100 million doesn't really mean anything anymore. It doesn't account for inflation after all, and it hardly speaks to a cultural event movie the way it used to. Is $100 million in a weekend just the new norm for a hit movie? The other new releases were nothing to speak of- the Ryan Reynolds thriller Self/Less didn't crack the top ten with only $5 million (I seriously don't know how he keeps getting to star in anything), while The Gallows came in fifth with $10 million.
The rest of the chart was filled in by Jurassic World, which topped Inside Out once more with $18 million, and will become only the fourth movie ever to earn $600 million in the U.S. (after Avatar, Titanic and The Avengers), while Inside Out was right behind it with $17 million. Terminator Genisys dropped from its disappointing opening to fourth with just $13 million, so it's counting on international money to save it and justify yet another sequel for that series.
Top 5:
- Minions- $115 million
- Jurassic World- $18.1 million
- Inside Out- $17.1 million
- Terminator Genisys- $13.7 million
- The Gallows- $10 million
Nothing much else to write home about this week- the documentary Amy continues to do well in limited release, pulling in $1.7 million from over 300 screens and becoming the highest grossing doc of the year (possible Oscar contender, perhaps?), but not a lot of action from the other indies this summer. Next week it's Marvel's Ant-Man against Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer's Trainwreck, which I'm especially curious about, because of all the recent media hype surrounding Schumer. For all the attention from critics, she's still an unknown to virtually all of the country, which no one in the press seems to realize. Can that movie open well based solely on reviews? We'll find out. See you guys next week!
