Universal and Illumination's "Minions & Monsters" claimed the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office over the Fourth of July weekend, and still managed to disappoint. The seventh installment in the "Despicable Me" universe pulled in just $61 million across its five-day holiday stretch, roughly half what the franchise's previous two entries earned in the same window and well below the $80 million pre-weekend projection, Variety reported.
The result marks the worst opening in the franchise's 16-year history. Meanwhile, Warner Bros.' "Supergirl" cratered 74% in its second weekend, pulling in a grim $9.6 million and putting the studio on track for a projected theatrical loss of $100 million to $120 million.
Together, the two results tell a clear story about the state of Hollywood's franchise-dependent business model, and about what happens when studios keep going back to the same well without giving audiences a compelling reason to show up.
"Minions & Monsters," directed by series co-creator Pierre Coffin, opened across 4,243 North American locations. Its $36 million Friday-through-Sunday haul fell below even the original 2010 "Despicable Me," which earned $56 million (not adjusted for inflation) over its traditional opening weekend.
The contrast with recent franchise entries is stark. "Minions: The Rise of Gru" launched to $123 million over the five-day July 4th stretch in 2022. "Despicable Me 4" opened to $122 million in the same holiday window in 2024. This year's installment pulled in roughly half that.
David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe, put it bluntly:
"Seven [installments] is further than any animation series has gone. Audiences are showing fatigue now."
Gross added that the film "will be profitable, but it's a misfire." That profitability is partly a function of Illumination's famously lean production model. The studio made "Minions & Monsters" for $85 million, well below the approximately $100 million price tag of prior entries and a fraction of the $250 million Pixar spent on "Toy Story 5," AP News reported in a profile of Illumination founder Chris Meledandri. The studio has generated more than $11 billion in global box office since 2010, though it has never won an Oscar and has received only one best animated feature nomination.
Internationally, "Minions & Monsters" fared better, earning $86 million over the weekend and $98 million to date. Its worldwide total stood at $159.8 million. Strong reviews, a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score and an "A-" CinemaScore, suggest the film's underperformance is not about quality. It's about how many times you can sell the same yellow pill-shaped characters before the audience stops buying.
If "Minions & Monsters" underperformed, "Supergirl" collapsed. The DC film dropped 74% from its $37.1 million opening weekend, earning just $9.6 million in its sophomore frame across 3,602 screens. Rivals in the industry believe the final number may come in even lower when estimates are officially tallied.
The film's cumulative domestic gross sits at $58.5 million. Globally, it has crossed the $100 million mark, reaching $100.5 million, but that figure looks anemic against a $170 million production budget. The projected theatrical loss of $100 million to $120 million would make "Supergirl" one of the more expensive misfires in recent superhero history.
The film's struggles reflect a broader pattern. Variety noted that superhero genre fatigue and the use of a lesser-known protagonist contributed to the poor result. Last year's "Superman" performed well at the box office, but Marvel's "Thunderbolts" was described as a recent theatrical misfire. The lesson is not that superhero films are dead. It's that audiences now discriminate sharply between entries that justify their existence and ones that feel like product.
The weekend's most interesting story, from a cultural standpoint, may be "Young Washington." Angel Studios' patriotic film about America's founding opened to $20.8 million across 2,700 theaters, landing at No. 3 on the domestic chart. It earned an "A" CinemaScore from audiences, even as critics gave it a cooler 57% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film's release was timed to coincide with America's 250th birthday, July 4, 2026, and Gross praised the strategy:
"The story is told from a patriotic, pro-America and faith-oriented point of view, and the release coincides with the nation's 250th anniversary. There's limited potential overseas, but the domestic run should be good. Angel Studios knows how to reach this audience."
Angel Studios built its reputation distributing faith-based content directly to motivated audiences, and the "Young Washington" result confirms that model still works. A $20.8 million opening for a patriotic film without a major franchise behind it, released into a weekend dominated by animated juggernauts, is a genuine achievement, and one that most of Hollywood's legacy studios would struggle to replicate because they have spent years ignoring or alienating the audience that showed up for it.
Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story 5" held the No. 2 spot with $31 million in its third weekend across 3,975 venues. Its cumulative domestic total reached $366 million, with $764 million worldwide. The contrast between "Toy Story" and "Despicable Me" is worth noting: Pixar has released five installments over 30 years. Illumination has churned out seven in 16 years, averaging one every two years. Pacing matters.
A24's "The Invite," directed by and starring Olivia Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, earned $800,700 on just 28 screens in limited release. Its cumulative stands at $1.36 million after two weekends, with a nationwide expansion planned for July 10.
Paramount's "Jackass: Best and Last" continued to struggle, dropping 68% to $2.7 million across 2,855 theaters. Its cumulative domestic total of $14.6 million, $20 million worldwide against a $10 million budget, puts it on track to be the lowest-grossing of the five "Jackass" films.
Total industry ticket sales from Friday through Sunday came in at approximately $121 million across all films. That falls short of the historical July 4th range of $150 million to $200 million, per Rentrack data.
Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak's head of marketplace trends, offered some context:
"When the 4th of July lands on a Saturday, it can have a negative impact on the box office. Nonetheless, theaters have been on a roll since the beginning of the year, with a summer movie season that is likely to be the biggest since 2019."
The broader summer numbers bear that out, to a point. Through the end of June, the summer box office ran 17% ahead of the same point in 2025 and just 1.7% behind 2019. After the holiday weekend, the gap behind 2019 widened to 7.25%, though the summer remains 11.9% above last year. Year-to-date, the domestic box office is up 13.2% from 2025 but still 16% behind the pre-pandemic benchmark of 2019.
The industry has not matched the 2023 summer, the first post-pandemic year to eclipse $4 billion in summer grosses, driven largely by the cultural phenomenon of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer." No comparable event-level releases have emerged this year, though Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" are expected later in July, and Disney's live-action "Moana" arrives next weekend.
Hollywood's business model runs on franchises. When those franchises deliver, the system works. When they don't, the losses are enormous, and they compound fast. "Supergirl" at $170 million in production costs, heading toward a nine-figure theatrical loss. "Minions & Monsters" at half its expected opening despite strong reviews. "Jackass" limping toward franchise-worst territory.
The studios that fared best this weekend were the ones that either exercised restraint, Pixar spacing "Toy Story" entries across decades, or that understood their audience well enough to meet them where they are, as Angel Studios did with "Young Washington" on the nation's 250th birthday.
There's a lesson in that, and it's one Hollywood's biggest players keep refusing to learn. You can't substitute brand recognition for a reason to show up. Audiences will tell you when they've had enough, and this weekend, they did.
