Animated films continue to dominate the summer box office.
The cartoon movie “Minions & Monsters” from Comcast’s (CMCSA) Universal Pictures earned an estimated $36.4 million U.S. during its debut weekend, matching industry expectations.
The movie, starring the Minions from the “Despicable Me” film series, earned $85 million U.S. internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $159.9 million U.S. in its first weekend.
In all, movies currently in release generated an estimated $121.3 million U.S. at the North American box office over the July 4th holiday weekend.
That was down 23% from the same weekend last year, when Universal’s “Jurassic World: Rebirth” sold $92 million U.S. in its first three days of release.
Last year’s July Fourth weekend generated $156.7 million U.S. at the domestic box office.
Minions was competing over the past weekend with Walt Disney’s (DIS) animated film “Toy Story 5,” which came in second with $31 million U.S. in domestic ticket sales in its third weekend of wide release.
Toy Story 5 has now grossed $366.3 million U.S. in domestic ticket sales and $764.3 million U.S. worldwide since opening on June 19 of this year.
In third place was the new film “Young Washington,” an historical drama about George Washington before the Revolutionary War, which earned $20.8 million U.S. in its first weekend.
In fourth place was Warner Bros.’ (WBD) poorly received “Supergirl” film, which earned $9.6 million U.S. in its second weekend, bringing its global total to $100.5 million U.S.
