by 
Updated on December 10, 2021
As a foregone conclusion, “Minions” dominated the box office this weekend. The only question is how much it’d earn. Despite initial predictions as high as $120 million, the film “merely” took in $115.2 million on its opening North American weekend. Overseas, it’s already earned $141.7 million, for a global total of $256.9 million. “Minions” managed to become the second highest-debuting animated film of all time (behind “Shrek the Third,” back when Shrek was massively popular), or third-highest after adjusting for inflation. It also set the record for the highest Friday opening for an animated film, topping “Toy Story 3.”
Elsewhere, “Jurassic World” came in a distant second, with $18.1 million (-38.1% from last weekend). Its totals now stand at $590.6 million domestic and $1.435 billion worldwide.
In third place is “Inside Out,” earning $17.1 million (-42.5%). To date, “Inside Out” has earned $283.6 million domestic and $400.9 million worldwide.
In fourth place is “Terminator: Genisys.” The film earned $13.7 million (-49.3%), giving it a disappointing total of $68.7 million domestic and $184.1 million worldwide. Imagine the film’s studio is hoping it’ll make a lot of money overseas to make up for a lackluster domestic performance.
Dropping to seventh place is “Ted 2,” which made another $5.6 million (-49.9%). Seth MacFarlane’s latest cinematic effort’s made $71.6 million domestic and $107.6 million worldwide.
Dropping out of the top 10 is “San Andreas,” which to date’s made $150 million domestic and $449.2 million worldwide.
Opening next weekend are two films, the R-rated comedy “Trainwreck” and Marvel’s latest superhero film, “Ant-Man.” I assume “Ant-Man” will be #1, unless the Minions are somehow formidable enough to fend off Marvel’s smallest superhero.
