Minions & Monsters Dominates Holiday Box Office

What's happened

Minions & Monsters has opened strongly, topping North American box office with $36.4 million for the holiday weekend and $61.4 million over five days. Toy Story 5 follows with $31 million, while Young Washington debuts around $21 million. Supergirl trails, and overall weekend revenue is down year-on-year but up for the summer period vs 2025.

What's behind the headline?

Key takeaways

• The film leads the domestic box office, signaling strong appetite for retro Hollywood-themed animation amid holiday distractions.
• Toy Story 5 remains a solid contender, highlighting continued competition within family releases.
• The box office environment shows a year-over-year dip, but summer totals are up against 2025, aided by lower-budget Gen‑Z titles.

Why this matters

• Studio promotional strategy, including World Cup tie-ins and holiday timing, is shaping opening grosses and audience mix.
• The performance suggests continued viability for animated franchises in crowded windows.

What to watch next

• Final domestic figures will refine the ranking and total grosses for the weekend.
• International performance will influence profitability and future release pacing.

Contextual note

• Figures reflect estimates from multiple outlets and are subject to final studio tallies.

How we got here

The Despicable Me franchise has continued to expand with Minions & Monsters set in 1920s Hollywood as the Minions seek fame by making a monster movie. The film opened midweek on the holiday, contributing to a debut worldwide total of about $160 million in its first week. Other titles like Toy Story 5 and Young Washington are competing for family audiences during the Independence Day window.

Our analysis

- Independent: Minions & Monsters leads box office with $36.4M; Toy Story 5 at $31M; Young Washington near $21M. - New York Times Business: Minions & Monsters earns strong international and domestic totals despite a slower opening. - AP News: Box office weekend down 24% YoY but up 12% for summer; Obsession and Backrooms drive Gen‑Z results. - Bloomberg: Minions & Monsters builds on Illumination’s franchise momentum with strong global gross. - The Guardian: Interviews with Pierre Coffin shed light on Minions' voicework and creative process.

Go deeper

• Will the box office lead sustain into next weekend?
• How does the international performance compare to domestic?
• What creative risks are being balanced in Minions & Monsters compared with earlier entries.

More on these topics

• Despicable Me - Film series

  Despicable Me is an American media franchise created by Sergio Pablos. It centers on a supervillain turned secret agent named Gru, his adoptive daughters, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, and his yellow-colored Minions. The franchise is produced by Illumination and distributed by its parent company Universal Pictures. The franchise began with the 2010 film of the same name, which was followed by three sequels, Despicable Me 2 (2013), Despicable Me 3 (2017), and Despicable Me 4 (2024) and three spin-off prequels, Minions (2015), Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), and Minions & Monsters (2026). The franchise also includes many short films, a television special, several video games, and a theme park attraction. It is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

• Minions: The Rise of Gru - 2022 animated film directed by Kyle Balda

  Minions: The Rise of Gru is a 2022 American animated comedy film directed by Kyle Balda and written by Matthew Fogel from a story by Fogel and Brian Lynch. Produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the second installment in the Minions prequel series and the fifth overall installment in the Despicable Me franchise. It features Steve Carell reprising his role as Gru and Pierre Coffin as the Minions, along with Russell Brand, Will Arnett, Steve Coogan and Julie Andrews. New cast members include Taraji P. Henson, Michelle Yeoh and Alan Arkin in his final film role. Following up after the events of Minions (2015), an eleven-year-old Gru plans to become a supervillain with the help of his Minions, which leads to a showdown with a malevolent team, the Vicious 6. After being delayed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Minions: The Rise of Gru had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 13, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 1. The film received mixed reviews from critics, some deemed it an improvement over its predecessor, with praise earned for its score, animation, humor, voice performances...

• Illumination - Animation company

  Illumination is an American film and animation studio founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007 and owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast.

• Steven Spielberg - American film director

  Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood era and one of the most popular directors and producers in film history.

• Charlie Chaplin - English comic actor and filmmaker (1889–1977)

  Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, singer, film editor and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from his childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977. Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially – he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. In 1914, Chaplin gained widespread popularity through his appearances in Keystone Studios films. He soon introduced and adopted the Tramp as his screen persona. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to Essanay Studios, where the Tramp persona was developed emotionally in The Tramp (1915). He then...

• Hollywood - Neighborhood in Los Angeles, California

  Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it.

• Universal Pictures - Film company

  Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Pow

• Harold Lloyd - American film actor and producer (1893-1971)

  Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Lloyd is considered alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most influential film..

• Trey Parker - American actor

  Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, and composer. He is known for co-creating South Park and co-developing The Book of Mormon with his creative partner Matt Stone.

• Chris Meledandri - CEO of Illumination

  Christopher Meledandri is an American film producer, and founder and CEO of Illumination. He is best known as the producer of the Despicable Me franchise.

• Paris - Capital of France

  Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,150,271 residents as of 2020, in an area of 105 square kilometres.

• Despicable Me 3 - 2017 film

  Despicable Me 3 is a 2017 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures.

• Zoey Deutch - American actress

  Zoey Francis Thompson Deutch is an American actress and producer. Deutch is a daughter of director Howard Deutch and actress-director Lea Thompson.

• Jesse Eisenberg - American actor

  Jesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor, producer, playwright, and writer. He made his television debut with the short-lived comedy-drama series Get Real.

• Canada - Country in North America

  Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest c

• Minions - 2015 film

  Minions is a 2015 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the spin-off prequel and the third installment overall in the Despicable Me franchise.

• Despicable Me 2 - 2013 film

  Despicable Me 2 is a 2013 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is the sequel to Despicable Me and the second installment in the Despicable Me franchise.

• France - Country in Europe

  France, officially the French Republic, is a country consisting of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories.

• North America - Continent

  North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be described as a northern subcontinent of the Americas, or America, in models that use fewer than seven continents.

• United States - Country in North America

  The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.