Despicable Me 3 has had anything but a despicable weekend. It claimed the top spot domestically with an estimated $75.4 million, and $192.3 million worldwide at the box office.
The first film opened to $56.4 million domestically in 2010, the 2013 sequel was $83.5 million, and the spin-off – Minions – $115.7 million two years ago, so while this is a bit of a step down domestically, it likely won’t worry Universal too much as the film is still due to open in places like China, France and Germany. Sequel fatigue might be an issue with adults, but perhaps not with young children.
At second place was arguably the antithesis to a big budget fourth film in a franchise, Edgar Wright‘s musical-driven action comedy Baby Driver. The film is looking at an estimated $30 million domestically over the weekend. Made for just $30 million, the film is now set to be Wright’s all-time highest grossing film domestically and should help him secure funding for his exciting future projects.
Third and fourth place were secured by two big budget blockbusters, Transformers: The Last Knight and Wonder Woman, respectively. The former reeled in $17 million, the latter $16.1 million in their home territories. As has been the case with previous Transformers installments, the film is performing much better overseas, taking in another $68 million this weekend from foreign markets.
The worldwide gross for the Michael Bay films is now $327.8 million, with $193.5 million of that coming solely from China. Wonder Woman‘s ascent to the top of the DCEU box office mountain is complete, with this weekend taking the film past $346 million domestically, higher than Man Of Steel ($291 million), Batman v Superman ($330.4 million), and Suicide Squad ($325.1 million).
Another third sequel, Cars 3, rounded off the top five with over $9 million and now has a $173.8 million total globally, with the film still yet to open in the UK, Spain, and Japan to name a few.
An additional film worth mentioning is The House, the comedy starring Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell, which disappointingly debuted at #6 and only pulled in $9 million domestically, and another $2.7 million from foreign markets. The film was made for $40 million, and could be looking at a surprising loss.
The upcoming weekend sees the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which should rocket to top spot with ease. The performances of Despicable Me 3 and – most notably – Baby Driver in their second weeks will be interesting to monitor.
#Peace.Love.DespicableMe
