The small, yellow minions of Despicable Me 2 upstaged Johnny Depp at the weekend movie box office in North America.
Families lifted Despicable Me 2
The animated Despicable sequel hauled in an impressive $82.5 million in the US and Canada from Friday through Sunday, more than double the weak $29.4 million for Walt Disney Co.’s big-budget Western The Lone Ranger, which stars Depp as the masked man’s Native American partner Tonto.
From their debuts through Sunday, Despicable 2 earned $142.1 million, while The Lone Ranger grossed just $48.9 million, below pre-opening forecasts for at least $60 million.
Families lifted Despicable Me 2, which finished far above industry projections and achieved the biggest-ever five-day opening for an animated film. The movie is a sequel to the 2010 blockbuster featuring Steve Carell as the voice of the lovable villain Gru.
In the new film, Gru is a single father to three adopted daughters and becomes a spy for an anti-villain league.
Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, spent $76 million to produce Despicable Me 2, unleashing a hefty marketing campaign, including a nationwide tour by a yellow minion blimp called the despicablimp.
Sales in international markets, where the movie started playing two weekends ago, stood at $151 million through Sunday, Universal said, for a worldwide total of $293 million.
“No one could imagine Despicable Me 2 would do this kind of business,” said Nikki Rocco, president for domestic distribution at Universal Pictures.
Another sequel, Minions, is scheduled for Christmas 2014.
The Lone Ranger cost Disney $225 million to produce plus at least $100 million for marketing. The poor opening raises the possibility that the movie could saddle the media giant with a loss on the film, which is an action remake of a 1930s radio show and a 1950s TV series set in the Old West.
Armie Hammer plays John Reid, the lawman who becomes the masked Lone Ranger to fight injustice with his partner Tonto.
The Lone Ranger added $24.3 million from international theatres during the weekend, bringing its global take to $73.2 million.
Another Disney hit, animated prequel Monsters University from the company’s Pixar studio, finished the weekend in fourth place, grabbing $19.6 million for the weekend. Its global total topped $400 million through Sunday.
The female buddy comedy The Heat, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, took the No. 3 slot, pulling in $25 million, while the Brad Pitt zombie thriller World War Z earned $18.2 million to finish in fifth place.