Comcast CMCSA-owned Universal Pictures’ latest and the fifth installment of the Despicable Me franchise, Minions: The Rise of Gru, broke the Jul 4 weekend box-office record with a collection of more than $125 million domestically. The record was previously held by Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which made $115.9 million in its first four days in 2011.

Minions: The Rise of Gru brought in an estimated $108.5 million in ticket sales in the opening weekend from 4,391 screens in North America. Overseas, the movie grossed $86 million on Jul 3 for a global collection of more than $200 million.

Universal and Illumination have had enormous success with the five Despicable Me movies and spinoffs, dating back to 2010, and have earned over $3.7 billion at the global box office.

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).

Minions: The Rise of Gru is not currently available to stream but the rest of the Despicable Me cinematic universe is streaming via Peacock and/or NBC Universal.

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Comcast’s Production House Joins Others Gaining From Theater Reopening

Although the box office is still down about 33% so far in 2022 compared with the same time in 2019, Minions: The Rise of Gru serves as proof that family audiences are willing to go back to the movie theater.

Minions: The Rise of Gru is just the latest in a string of successes for Universal's family releases, including Sing 2, which has grossed more than $406 million since opening in December, and The Bad Guys, which has made more than $243 million.

Last weekend, for the first time since pre-Covid times, four movies (Elvis, Jurassic World: Dominion, The Black Phone, and Top Gun: Maverick) grossed over $20 million.

Other recent releases, including Paramount Global’s PARA Top Gun: Maverick continues to deliver, having added another $25.5 million to its total, which has already surpassed $1 billion. The Paramount Pictures film is playing at 3,843 locations in its sixth weekend. This Tom Cruise movie by Paramount Global also continues to impress overseas, where it earned another $37 million over the last weekend. So far, the movie has earned $544.5 million from foreign markets and $1.11 billion globally.

Last month, Disney DIS owned Pixar Animation Studios’ Lightyear disappointed in its opening weekend, grossing $50.6 million domestically and tumbled further in its third weekend with an estimated $6.5 million. Opening in wide release next weekend is Disney and Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which is expected to lift the company’s box-office revenues in the near term.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s WBD Elvis collected $17.9 million from 3,932 venues over the weekend in North America and hit $113 million globally, including $34 million overseas. So far, the Warner Bros. musical biopic has accumulated $70 million in North America. Elvis stars Austin Butler as the king of rock and roll.

Other Universal titles such as Jurassic World: Dominion picked another $15.7 million and the horror movie The Black Phone added $12.3 million over the last weekend.

Leading up to the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru, Universal’s marketers had the Minions collaborating with the Tokyo Olympics, appearing on NBC shows like American Ninja Warrior and America’s Got Talent.

However, Comcast, a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company, suffers from increasing programming & production costs, which grew 18.5% year over year to $10.57 billion in first-quarter 2022. Advertising, marketing and promotional expenses increased 27.6% year over year to $2.06 billion.

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