Even with most families spending July 4 watching fireworks, “Despicable Me 2” had a superb Thursday, grossing another $24.5 million for a total of $58.8 million in just 48 hours. The Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment production is still on track to gross anywhere between $120-130 million over the five-day holiday weekend. Yes, American loves its minions.
Holding steady at no. 2 is Gore Verbinski’s “The Lone Ranger.” Unlike “DM2,” “Ranger” didn’t have a substantial drop, but unlike the no. 3 film on Thursday (“The Heat,” more on that later) it didn’t have a substantial jump either. Disney’s pricey retelling of the classic Western hero found just another $9.8 million on July 4th for $19.5 million so far. It’s currently still looking at $45-50 million for the five-day. That’s substantially lower than the $65-70 million indicated by pre-release audience polling.
Jumping 23% from Wednesday to Thursday was 20th Century Fox’s “The Heat.” The Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy hit comedy pulled in $6.3 million for a superb $61.3 million in just one week. It could hit $90 million by end of day Sunday.
“Monsters University” dropped to fourth place with another $5.2 million and a fantastic $196 million so far. As expected Pixar’s latest is suffering with “DM2” entering the marketplace.
Fifth place went to “World War Z” which earned $4.3 million for $140.3 million to date.
After an impressive $4.7 million opening on Wednesday, “Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain” had a substantial 43% drop grossing just $2.5 million Thursday. Summit will hope their underdog comedy film will have something of a comeback over the last three days of the holiday weekend.
Look for continuing box office updates throughout the weekend on HitFix.