Box office preview: ‘Despicable Me 4’ returns blockbuster animated franchise to 4th of July 

It’s Independence Day weekend, and if you read last week’s July preview then you already know that this should be a landmark month for summer movies, beginning with this week’s offerings. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

Opening on the Wednesday before the 4th of July is Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s animated sequel “Despicable Me 4,” once again featuring the voice of Steve Carell as the villainous Gru, surrounded by his lovable Minions. The fourth installment also brings back characters voiced by Kristen Wiig, Miranda Cosgrove and Steve Coogan, while introducing new characters voiced by Will Ferrell, Sofia Vergara and Joey King.

This one adds “Gru Jr,” a new member to Gru’s extended family, as they go on the run and into hiding from new villains, voiced by Ferrell and Vergara, although these movies rarely rely too much on their plot to get people interested. The movie has already opened overseas, where it’s grossed $25.5 million, though that’s before it opens in some of the bigger territories, with Australia being an exception. Reviews have been mixed at best, with it currently at 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. (See how all the “Despicable Me” movies rank.)

Although the original “Despicable Me” opened with $56.4 million and grossed $252.8 million domestically in 2010, its 2013 sequel did much better, and then the 2015 spin-off “Minions” opened even bigger than both, ending up with $1.15 billion worldwide. “Despicable Me 3” fell a bit in 2017, but then 2012’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” also opened over $100 million and ended up with the franchise’s highest domestic gross with $370 million.

Maybe it will hurt that this installment doesn’t literally have “Minions” in the title, so that fans of the franchise, both young and old, know that the Minions are in this one, too. Maybe that will be a hindrance, but much of Universal’s marketing is still being focused on those beloved yellow critters.

Opening on Wednesday, “Despicable Me” should be able to rack up $25 to $35 million in its first couple days (including the 4th) and then add another $75 million plus over the weekend for an opening week of $110 million or more. It will be quite interesting to see how the release of this movie affects the absolute dominance of Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” over the past few weeks, as that might already exceed $500 million before the weekend.

Angel Studios will open its drama “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” into over 2,000 theaters on Thursday, the 4th of July, in hopes of replicating the success of last year’s “Sound of Freedom.” That movie opened with $19.7 million over 4th of July last year, but it went on to gross $184.2 million domestically, besting many other studio franchise movies last summer.

This one revolves around the true story of Donna Martin and Reverend W.C. Martin, and their East Texas Church, where 22 families adopt 77 children from the foster system, the type of moving drama that can be a draw to the faith-based crowd. Reviews so far have been pretty good so far, with the movie currently having a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, at the time of this writing.

“Sound of Hope” should be able to make $2 to $3 million on Independence Day proper and another $6 to $9 million over the three-day weekend, but we’ll have to wait and see if it has anywhere near the legs that “Sound of Freedom” had last summer.

Then, on Friday, A24 opens Ti West‘s horror-thriller “MaXXXine,” starring Mia Goth, which wraps up the trilogy begun in 2022 with “X” and “Pearl.” This one is set in the Hollywood of 1985, and it involves Goth’s adult film star Maxine Minx getting a real acting role in a horror movie, while a serial killer is running rampant in the area. The movie co-stars Kevin Bacon, Giancarlo Esposito, Elizabeth Debicki, Lily Collins, Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan.

Reviews have generally been solid with 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, so far, though “X” and “Pearl” were both in the 90% range. Even so, “X” only grossed $11.8 million in March 2022 and “Pearl” only made $9.4 million domestic later that year. The good thing going for “MaXXXine” is that those previous two movies have been playing on streaming and cable for two years now, helping to build up an audience for the conclusion to the horror trilogy.

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Because of that and the lack of competition “MaXXXine” faces compared to the previous movies, as well as it being the summer with many people being off on Friday, this one could very well open in fourth place in the $8 to 11 million range.

Also, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate will release the violent Indian action thriller “Kill” from filmmaker Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, starring Lakshya as a soldier who finds himself on a train filled with vicious outlaws. So far, theater count is unspecified, though it could be fairly wide, attempting to capitalize on the success of Bollywood films like last weekend’s “Kalki 2898 AD” and the buzz generated for the movie from festivals.

Searchlight will expand Yorgos Lanthimos‘ “Kinds of Kindness” into more theaters nationwide on Wednesday, though its showing in 490 theaters last weekend does not bode well for it to really explode this weekend against stronger new movies like “MaXXXine.”  It should be able to bring in roughly $2 or $3 million this weekend, though it all depends on how many theaters it expands into.

Lastly, Film Movement will release Niclas Larsson‘s dramatic thriller “Mother, Couch,” starring Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Ellen Burstyn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Taylor Russell, and F. Murray Abraham, in New York this Friday, nearly a year since the movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Don’t forget to check back on Sunday to see how all the movies did at the box office.

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