Despicable Me 4’ Reigns At Box Office

Gru and the minions are celebrating a second week in top place at the North American box office

Gru and the minions enjoyed a second week in top place at the North American box office this weekend, while a little horror movie named “Longlegs” upset the superstar $100 million "Fly Me to the Moon."

The domination of “ Despicable Me 4 ” was scarcely a surprise, as the Universal and Illumination franchise gained $44.7 million and put the picture past $200 million, according to studio projections Sunday. But the real upset came farther down the charts with “ Longlegs ” more than double the launch of the Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum love comedy “ Fly Me to the Moon.”

“Longlegs,” an original thriller about a serial killer starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, generated an estimated $22.6 million from 2,510 cinemas. That’s the greatest ever start for independent firm Neon (primarily renowned for distributing the Oscar-winning “Parasite”), which purchased the $10 million picture for distribution. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, “Longlegs” also achieved the best opening for an R-rated film this year.

Neon executed a unique marketing plan for the picture, including elements like inserting cipher messages in local newspapers and posting a Los Angeles billboard with a phone number that played a “unnerving” message. In its first 48 hours, the number got over 250,000 calls.

“Longlegs” was well-received by reviewers (movie has an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes), while audiences gave it a less enthused a C+ CinemaScore.

“Fly Me to the Moon,” an Apple Original Films movie, premiered with barely $10 million over the weekend. It followed holdovers “Inside Out 2,” in third with $20.8 million; and “A Quiet Place: Day One,” in fourth place with $11.8 million.

Sony distributed “Fly Me to the Moon,” the Greg Berlanti-directed picture about a marketing professional hired in to sell the space program to the American people, and, subsequently, organize a false moon landing just in case. Apple has not yet revealed when it will debut on its streaming service.

The movie premiered in 3,356 theaters this weekend, garnering an audience that was largely over 45. In this case, the crowd was nicer than the critics, awarding it an A- CinemaScore versus a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting that word-of-mouth may work in its favor over the long term.

The year-to-date disparity between box office performance this year and previous is growing considerably narrower. It's presently down 16.1% from 2023 owing to a series of recent achievements. But performance still pales in contrast to pre-pandemic levels. On July 14 in 2019, the yearly box office take stood at $6.2 billion. This year it’s at $4.1 billion so far.

“A very unpredictable summer movie season continues,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “And after a slow start in May (it) has continued to surprise and impress with expected as well as unexpected hits adding bottom-line dollars to the industry’s most important season.” You may also read this: Review Of Something In The Water

In limited distribution, A24 launched “ Sing Sing,” an early Oscar candidate, in four cinemas in New York and Los Angeles. With sellouts in both locations, it grossed $137,119, one of the greatest limited openers of the year. The film by filmmaker Greg Kwedar is about an arts program at the jail and contains several real life participants, including Clarence Maclin in his cinematic debut. “Sing Sing” will continue playing on four screens through July and extend countrywide in August.

Finally, “Twisters,” which debuts in North America on Thursday, began its foreign launch this weekend, collecting $11.5 million from 38 markets including in Australia, Mexico and Brazil.

In its wake comes “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the first Marvel release of the summer.

Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian cinemas, according to Comscore. Final domestic data will be announced Monday.

1. “Despicable Me 4,” $44.7 million.

2. “Longlegs,” $22.6 million.

3. “Inside Out 2,” $20.8 million.

4. “A Quiet Place: Day One,” $11.8 million.

5. “Fly Me to the Moon,” $10 million.

6. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” $4.4 million.

7. “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” $2.4 million.

8. “MaXXXine,” $2.1 million.

9. “Indian 2,” $2 million.

10. “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” $1.3 million.