The $220 million film was sold as a glorified sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, with Johnny Depp as Tonto and Gore Verbinski in the director's chair once again. The big box office tragedy of the weekend was the $29.3 million Fri-Sun and $48.94 million Wed-Sun debut of Disney's The Lone Ranger.
Of course, if it plays like Ice Age 3, it gets to $412 million, but don't bet on that. So give Despicable Me a final gross of between $270 million and $299 million, with Universal likely pushing it to $300 million if it gets close enough. With the exception of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which did a remarkable 2.9x its five-day $66 million gross, pretty much every recent (and many not-so recent) July 4th opener has done between 1.9x and 2.1x its long weekend debut gross. As for long-term gross, I won't pretend to predict the worldwide total (it's at $293.4 million today), but domestic totals for July 4th earners are stunningly consistent. The sequel promised more of the same, which isn't always a guarantee of box office expansion (see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), but this time it paid off. It was a fun, charming, and slightly bent animated adventure based on the somewhat novel premise of centering around a super villain, a film that parents and kids enjoyed equally. Other than that, the trailers were funny, and the first film has not seen its reputation decrease by any degree because it was never held up as any kind of masterpiece in the first place. Universal sold the crap out of the Minions, which is the favorite element of pretty much every kid who saw the last film. It played 60% female, 55% under 25, 40% under 17, and 27% Hispanic. Considering the number of sequels that have debuted at around the same numbers that their originals did over the last few years ( Star Trek Into Darkness, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, etc.), this massive uptick is no small feat. This is indeed Universal's Shrek 2 moment, where a sequel to their crown jewel/break-out property scorches the box office thanks to audience goodwill from the first installment. Oh, and it's at about $300 million worldwide since debuting in scattered markets over the last two weeks leading up to this weekend's expansion. It's the eighth-biggest July Fri-Sun debut on record and is nearly double the film's budget in five days. But is actually fourth in terms of Wed-Sun numbers, behind Transformers 3 ($162 million), Twilight Saga Eclipse ($157m, thanks to a $68m Wednesday debut)), and Spider-Man 2 ($152m). In terms of July 4th holiday debuts, it's the third-biggest Fri-Sun number behind Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($97m) and Spider-Man 2 ($88m). In terms of the first five days for an animated film, it's actually ahead of the $128 million Wed-Sun debut of Shrek 2 (which was basically ignored on Wednesday and Thursday) and ahead of the $138 million Fri-Tues gross of Shrek the Third, and the $141 million Fri-Tues gross of Toy Story 3. Among animated debuts, it's the fourth-biggest Fri-Sun ever, behind Shrek 2 ($108 million), Toy Story 3 ($110 million), and Shrek the Third ($122 million ). That's Universal's biggest five-day gross ever, although the studio's Fri-Sun record is still held by Fast & Furious 6 with $97 million. The $76 million Illumination-produced/Universal-distributed production earned a hearty $142.1 million over its first five days, including $82.5 million over the Fri-Sun portion of the weekend. Despicable Me 2 topped the July 4th holiday weekend with a rather mighty debut bow.
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