Universal Pictures' "Minions: The Rise of Gru" rose to the top of the domestic box office last weekend, collecting $108.5 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.
Still going strong in second place is Paramount Pictures' "Top Gun: Maverick," which made $25.5 million in its sixth weekend for a North American cumulative of $564 million.
Rounding out the top five are Warner Bros.' "Elvis," which added $19 million in its second weekend for a North American cumulative of $67.3 million; Universal's "Jurassic World Dominion," which devoured $15.7 million in its fourth weekend for a North American cumulative of $331.8 million; and Universal's "The Black Phone," which scared up $12.3 million in its second weekend for a North American cumulative of $47.5 million.
Directed by Kyle Balda, Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val, "Minions: The Rise of Gru" tells the origin story of evil mastermind Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) through the enlarged eyes of his silly, babbling yellow helpers (voiced by Pierre Coffin).
The sixth movie in the cartoon saga -- which debuted in 2010 with "Despicable Me" -- received a 72% fresh rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and an A-grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
The movie's performance helped quash concerns that parents worried about covid-19 aren't ready to take their children back to theaters. Disney and Pixar's "Lightyear" did far worse than expected when it debuted, and ticket sales have plunged since it premiered in mid-June. It landed in sixth place with $6.6 million over the weekend, Comscore estimated.
"Minions" is on track to become one of the biggest openings ever for a July Fourth holiday weekend, a record previously held by "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" which made $115.9 million in its first four days in 2011. Including international showings, where "Minions: The Rise of Gru" is playing in 61 markets, its worldwide gross is sitting at $202.2 million through Sunday.
"It's a tremendous debut," said Jim Orr, Universal's president of domestic distribution. "It's playing very broadly across North America. Every single market doing extraordinarily well."
"Families feel very comfortable [taking] all their kids to the theater," Orr said. "These results speak for themselves."
"For many months there was this idea that family audiences were not going to come back to the theater. We can put that to rest," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.
"This became an event. It was a holiday weekend, the release date was perfect, the marketing was spot on," Dergarabedian said. "And everyone knew this was going to be in theaters only."
Bleecker Street released "Mr. Malcolm's List" last weekend on 1,384 screens in U.S. and Canadian theaters. The Regency-era comedy of manners stars Freida Pinto and Zawe Ashton as friends looking to get back at a picky bachelor. The studio says that the film earned $851,853 by Sunday.
Audiences are also still catching up with A24's "Everything Everywhere All At Once," which added an estimated $552,000 from 607 screens, in spite of the fact that it's also available to rent on demand. The studio's newer title, "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On," expanded to 22 screens last weekend and earned about $308,000.
Opening in wide release today is Disney and Marvel's "Thor: Love and Thunder."