‘Despicable Me 4’ Debuts With $27 Million

©Universal/Courtesy of the Everett Collection

Gru and his gang of minions are setting off fireworks at the box office this Independence Day.

“Despicable Me 4,” the latest installment in Universal and Illumination’s hit animated franchise, earned $27 million Wednesday. The sequel returns Steve Carell as Gru, a recovering supervillain turned secret agent, and pits him against Will Ferrell as a French villain named Maxime Le Mal. Yet it’s the Minions, those anarchic creatures with yellow highlighters, who are the biggest draws, having appeared not only in the “Despicable Me” movies but also in a series of spinoffs. Expect “Despicable Me 4” to gross about $120 million over the five-day weekend.

The strong results are welcome news for movie theaters, which have had a rough start to the summer after promising films like “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa” failed. Things have started to improve, however, with Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” bringing crowds back in recent weeks. As of Wednesday, “Inside Out 2” took in $7.3 million, bringing its domestic gross to $496.6 million. “A Quiet Place: Day One” took in $4.4 million, bringing its domestic gross to $68.6 million. And “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” took in $1.2 million, bringing its domestic gross to $169.1 million.

Meanwhile, Kevin Costner’s epic Western “Horizon: An American Saga” has grossed $1.1 million. So far, the film, a financial disaster, has earned $14.8 million after one week in theaters. Costner, who produced, co-wrote and starred in “Horizon,” also partially self-financed the multi-part production. Despite public pushback, a second installment is set to be released in August, and filming has begun on a third chapter.

The “Despicable Me” franchise has become virtually synonymous with the Fourth of July. The 2022 spinoff, “Minions: Gru,” also came out during the calendar, breaking records to become the highest-grossing film of the holiday, with $123 million over the five-day period. Other films in the series, including 2017’s “Despicable Me 3” ($99 million to open), 2013’s “Despicable Me 2” ($83.5 million to open) and 2010’s “Despicable Me” ($56 million to open), all launched during the same holiday period.

Last year’s July 4 box office saw a race between “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” a flop that spelled the end of the once-powerful franchise, and “The Sound of Liberty,” a low-budget faith-based film that was an unexpected commercial juggernaut.

“Despicable Me 4” was directed by series mainstay Chris Renaud and co-directed by Patrick Delage. In addition to Carell and Ferrell, the voice cast includes Kristen Wiig, Pierre Coffin, Joey King, Miranda Cosgrove, Steve Coogan, Sofía Vergara and Stephen Colbert.