The animated sequel Minions & Monsters, the upcoming third film in the Minions series, has received a relatively mediocre box office forecast. Directed and co-written by Pierre Coffin, who was the director for 2015’s Minions as well as the first three Despicable Me films, the Illumination production follows the Minions as they attempt to regain their reputation in Old Hollywood by producing their own monster flick. With Coffin returning as the voice for the Minions, the impressive cast includes Allison Janney, Trey Parker, Jesse Eisenberg, and Jeff Bridges. Minions & Monsters will make its debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in less than a week on July 21 before releasing nationwide on July 1.
How much is Minions & Monsters expected to earn at the domestic box office?
Illumination’s Minions & Monsters is predicted to earn $268 million, within the range from $248 million to $291 million, at the domestic box office for its full theatrical run. For its domestic opening weekend, the film is forecast to bring in $57 million, or somewhere between $53 million and $62 million. This figure jumps to $91 million for its 5-day domestic start (the movie comes out on a Wednesday).
While these numbers are all impressive on paper, as forecast by a June 13 report from BoxOfficeTheory, they are notably lower than the box office performances of other movies in the Despicable Me series and Minions prequels. 2024’s Despicable Me 4 had an impressive $75 million domestic opener on route to a $361 million domestic haul ($972 million worldwide), while 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru had an even higher domestic opener of $107 million on its way to a $370 million domestic haul ($940 million worldwide). This current prediction for Minions & Monsters is more comparable to the $264 million domestic total for 2017’s Despicable Me, though it did have a stronger domestic opener of $72 million.
On another worrying note, the analytics site’s forecast for the film’s domestic start hasn’t changed since early June, suggesting that its momentum has stalled despite it being about two weeks away from release.
One look at the summer theatrical schedule, though, and it’s plain to see that Minions & Monsters will need to contend with a handful of other friendly-friendly films. While Toy Story 5 releases roughly two weeks before the Illumination movie does, its predicted $150 million to $180 million domestic opener will likely result in a strong third weekend performance. On the other side, Disney’s live-action Moana arrives on July 10, and its projected $75 million to $96 million domestic start means that it’s expected to take the top spot at the box office when it releases. And we shouldn’t forget about Supergirl that comes out on June 26 as well as Angel Studios’ Young Washington that makes its debut on July 3 in the same week that Minions & Monsters does.
Fortunately on a better note, the Illumination flick is dropping right in time for the Independence Day holiday weekend, which should bolster its opening numbers. In addition, the reported budget for Minions & Monsters, as noted by Puck, is $85 million, meaning that the movie will not have a difficult time breaking even at the box office. While the site thinks that it’s hoping to cross the $900 million mark, that’s far past the typical benchmark of a film needing to bring in 2.5 times its budget to make a profit.
Using the standard method, the animated sequel will only need to make around $212 million to break even, a goal that it’s expected to reach merely on its domestic numbers without even considering its international haul. That should be no trouble for a franchise whose main strength comes from its performance overseas.
