Minions & Monsters Gets a Troubling Box Office Forecast

The upcoming Illumination film Minions & Monsters, otherwise known as Minions 3, is off to a slow start in early box office predictions. Directed by Pierre Coffin, this third film in the Minions prequel franchise (or the seventh if we include the Despicable Me series too) is set in the 1920s as the adorable horde of yellow creatures attempt to create their own monster-driven flick. Coffin himself will voice the often unintelligible Minions as usual, alongside a cast that includes Trey Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, and Allison Janney. However, the timing of the film, which comes out on July 1, amid a bustling summer calendar could contribute to its comparably soft domestic start.

Minions & Monsters receives a relatively low box office prediction

The comedy adventure Minions & Monsters is predicted to earn somewhere in the range of $53 million to $62 million at the box office in its domestic opening weekend from July 3 to July 5. For its full theatrical run in the US and Canada, it’s projected to rake in $248 million to $291 million.

This forecast comes from analytics site BoxOfficeTheory (by way of a r/boxoffice thread on Reddit), though it comes with several caveats. As usual, these are early predictions so they can fluctuate and increase as we move toward its release date. Because the movie comes out on July 1, over the long Fourth of July weekend, its domestic numbers will be spread across five days, which means that its three-day weekend figures will likely be lowered as a result.

That said, the $53M to $62M prediction for the film is on the low end compared to other movies in the franchise, which have typically gotten near or over the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. By comparison, 2024’s Despicable Me 4 had a $75 million domestic opener (on its way to a $972 million global haul), while 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru scored a $107 million domestic opener (on route to a $940 million global haul). Among the films in the series, only the original 2010 Minions film had a potentially lower domestic opener of $56 million.

One potential reason for the more conservative range for Minions & Monsters stems from its competition from other blockbusters, particularly Pixar’s Toy Story 5 that releases two weeks before it on June 19. While the Disney feature will be in its third weekend by the time Minions & Monsters comes out, it’s expected to have a leggy run and earn a whopping $130 million to $160 million in its domestic opener. The battle between these two family-friendly animated sequels to attract casual moviegoers will cause the Illumination film to have a slower build.

On top of that, it will have to contend with Milly Alcock’s Supergirl that releases one week earlier on June 26, giving audiences yet another option at the theater. And in the same week, Young Washington from Angel Films that stars William Franklyn-Miller, Andy Serkis, and Ben Kingsley will come out on July 3. Directed and co-written by Jon Erwin, the historical war drama will be a strong draw for patriotic audiences during the holiday weekend. The report expects the film to earn $23 million to $35 million in its domestic opener, pulling some of the momentum from the Minions outing.

As revealed in the trailers for Minions & Monsters, the film follows new Minions James and Henry as they try to create a monster movie as a comeback in Hollywood, but they decide to use an ancient book to summon the monsters they need. This unleashes a bite-sized Cthulhu-like being named Goomi (full name Gary Orkam Oliver Magma Ichabod the Deceiver) who eventually calls forth a gargantuan eyeball-ridden slime named Irene that seeks to destroy everything on the planet. That’s when the Minions band together to take out the world-ending threat they have caused.

Source: Comingsoon.net