SATURDAY AM: A fifth animated movie about annoying, high-pitched, frantic little beetles — who many in the industry thought would under-deliver over the July 4th weekend — is doing exactly the opposite of that. Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru is hauling in some serious cash, with a $109.5M 3-day, and $129.2M 4-day. The expected worldwide debut of $196.6M ($202.1M with holdovers) is decimating our earlier projection of $150M. To think that two Independence Day holidays ago we were confined to our homes, watching Hamilton on Disney+.
It’s just more proof that it certainly pays not to send everything to streaming; that there’s money in movie theaters. I’m sure there’s a faction of Universal brass in the face of NBCUniversal CEO window-crusher Jeff Shell who are beaming and relieved over the power of the theatrical window.
