Weekend Box Office: Despicable Me 4 is huge; Horizon still struggling to find an audience

As expected, Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 4 had no problem claiming the top spot over this holiday weekend. Deadline reported that the film posted a strong – but not franchise record-setting $75 million (which isn’t far from what we predicted earlier this week). With the holiday gross, the film’s five-day total is a muscular $122.6 million. That’s the second biggest opening for one of the Despicable Me movies, but it pales compared to the Minions spin-off films, which both opened well north of $100 million on their opening weekends.

Notably, despite the common consensus that two family-oriented films would bite into each other’s box office this weekend, Pixar’s box office juggernaut, Inside Out 2, continued to hold steady with $33 million, only a 42% decline from last weekend. So far, it’s made an incredible $536 million domestically. A Quiet Place: Day One performed within franchise expectations, slipping 60% to $21 million, with the domestic total currently at about $94 million. That’s a great result for a third film in a franchise, especially considering that franchise star Emily Blunt is sitting this one out, with it a prequel. Expect more movies in this franchise to come.

Speaking of franchises, Bad Boys: Ride or Die continued to pack some serious heat at the summer box office, with it making $6.55 million for a total north of $177 million. At this point, it should end its run just short of the double-century mark. Still, clearly, Will Smith’s star power hasn’t diminished post-Oscar slap, with it looking to end as the second biggest Bad Boys movie ever, with only Bad Boys For Life outgrossing it with a $206 million domestic total.

Meanwhile, Ti West’s MaXXXine turned out to be front-loaded, with horror fans turning out in droves to see it on Friday night, but then laying off the rest of the weekend. It wound up grossing $6.7 million, which is still a franchise high for the A24-produced trilogy, which began with X and continued with Pearl. 

The news wasn’t quite as good for Kevin Costner’s epic western, Horizon: Chapter One. While it had a better hold than most other movies this weekend, with it only slipping 50% to $5.48 million, considering last weekend’s dismal opening, a final tally in the neighbourhood of $35 million seems to be in the cards for this big-budget passion project. Maybe Chapter 2 will do better in August? We’ll see, but either way, this is a disappointing result for a movie Costner largely financed himself. 

In terms of counter-programming, Angel Studios has a solid word-of-mouth hit with The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, which made $3.2 million this weekend, for a $6.79 million total. If word of mouth is good, this one might have some great legs over the rest of the summer. The Indian-made epic Kalki 2898 A.D continued to pull in impressive numbers, grossing $1.83 million for a $16 million-plus total. It’s one of the highest-grossing Indian produced movies domestically of all time. 

Jeff Nichols’s The Bikeriders, which hits VOD on Tuesday, sunk further down the list, tumbling another 61% to $1.3 million and a grand total under $20 million. Finally, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness collapsed at the domestic box office this weekend. Despite adding over 400 screens, it still fell over 45%, with its grand total domestically at just over $3.8 million. This one seems too niche to catch on with a mainstream audience. 

Next weekend, the Channing Tatum/ Scarlett Johansson comedy Fly Me to the Moon and the amazing horror flick Longlegs will be released. 

What did you see this weekend? Let us know in the comments!