Its' been an interesting week for Minions and Monsters. The infamous Minions have tried to steal the moon, made lift difficult for Gru, and thrilled audiences around the world since their arrival on our big screens back in 2010's Despicable Me. Now, they are back for their most unique adventure, arriving in the familiar early July slot that has served the franchise well in the past.
Minions and Monsters is a 1920s-set caper which features three specific Minions during their universe's Golden Age of Hollywood. Disillusioned by the demise of silent films, they set out to make their own monster movie using real monsters - of course it all goes wrong for them and chaos ensues. However, the film has already set a box office record after its opening weekend. Unfortunately, it's not the one it was hoping for.
Minions and Monsters now expected to become the lowest-grossing movie in the franchise
It may have only been released one week ago but Minions and Monsters is already on-track to become the lowest-grossing movie in the overall Minions / Despicable Me franchise. The film had an unexpectedly soft domestic opening of $36 million across the July 4 weekend, which has worked well for the franchise in the past (and a total of $61 million if we include the longer weekend). This is the lowest-opening weekend that the Minions have ever seen (and yes, even lower than 2010's domestic opening of Despicable Me, which pulled in $56 million across a typical weekend timeframe).
This came as something of a surprise considering how popular the Minions are, but with multiple movies to their name - including two this decade - there is possibly an argument to be made for franchise fatigue, which has already impacted the likes of The Mandalorian and Grogu and Supergirl this summer.
As it currently stands, here is the list of Despicable Me / Minions movies and their respective box office takings to give you an idea of where Minions and Monsters is currently polling:
- Minions (2015) - $1.1 billion
- Despicable Me 3 (2017) - $1.03 billion
- Despicable Me 4 (2024) - $986 million
- Despicable Me 2 (2013) - $975 million
- Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) - $937.7 million
- Despicable Me (2010) - $544.7 million
- Minions and Monsters (2026) - $223.8 million (ongoing)
Now, there are some obvious points we need to make about the above list. For starters, this is just the opening week / weekend worldwide numbers for Minions and Monsters; it will undoubtedly continue to make a lot of money in the days and weeks ahead. And yet, it isn't generating enough momentum to outgross Despicable Me's lifetime gross of $544 million, meaning that it is inevitable that it will finish in last place when it comes to the franchise's takings.
Speaking of the 2026 movie's takings, the international audience did come out for the chaotic little yellow creatures. While Minions and Monsters' domestic opening weekend was underwhelming, international audiences came to the rescue with $86 million then and continued momentum since. But, again, without the US support, those numbers can't generate enough traction to pull the movie out of last place.
So, why did it struggle with US audiences? There are some theories but the one that carries the most weight is simply bad timing. While the July 4 weekend has been good to the Minions before, this one came directly after the release of Toy Story 5, which has been dominating the kid-friendly markets since its June 19 release. It kept Supergirl from the top spot on that film's opening weekend and put up quite the fight against Minions and Monsters the week after that, taking in $31 million. With $800 million to its name, it's hard to compete with the newest Toy Story movie.
Meanwhile, it didn't help matters that the July 4 weekend actually took place on July 4, with that Saturday quite possibly attracting audiences to Independence Day-themed events instead. Had it been one day earlier - or even later - the big Saturday may well have allowed for moviegoers to take their kids to see Minions and Monsters.
There's also that big thing in Hollwyood that we all love to keep talking about now: Franchise fatigue. It sounds unusual to say when fans clearly love certain franchises - including the Minions - but it's very real. With two Minions movies - Despicable Me 4 and Minions: The Rise of Gru - released within the past four years, it may well have been a case of overexposure, with can very easily dilute audience interest over time. And, on the contrary, the Toy Story franchise has successfully avoided this issue by spacing out its releases for years at a time, building anticipation for the next installments and bypassing franchise fatigue.
It's also important to note that Minions and Monsters will not be a box office flop. The film has already grossed $223 million on a relatively respectable budget of $80 million. It has a break-even point of around $212.5 million, which it has already surpassed. So make no mistake about it: The film will turn a large profit for Illumination and Universal if it sustains those strong international legs, so there clearly is still a demand for the Minions. It's just surprising for a franchise to go from two near-billion releases to one that will struggle to reach half of those numbers in the space of a few years.
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