Tue | Nov 5, 2024

‘Despicable Me 4’ reigns at box office

Impressive start for ‘Longlegs’

Published:Monday | July 15, 2024 | 12:07 AM
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This image released by Neon shows Maika Monroe in a scene from ‘Longlegs’.
AP
This image released by Neon shows Maika Monroe in a scene from ‘Longlegs’.
In the first Despicable Me movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favourite supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of Minions mayhem in Illumination’s ‘Despicable Me 4’.
In the first Despicable Me movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favourite supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League-agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of Minions mayhem in Illumination’s ‘Despicable Me 4’.
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AP:

Gru and the minions celebrated a second week in first place at the North American box office this weekend, while a small horror movie called Longlegs upset the starry $100-million Fly Me to the Moon.

The supremacy of Despicable Me 4 was hardly a surprise, as the Universal and Illumination franchise added $44.7 million and pushed the film over $200 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. But the big upset came further down the charts, with Longlegs more than doubling the début of the Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon.

Longlegs, an original horror about a serial killer starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, made an estimated $22.6 million from 2,510 theatres. That’s the best-ever start for indie outfit Neon (most famous for releasing the Oscar-winning Parasite), which acquired the $10-million film for distribution. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, Longlegs also scored the best opening for an R-rated film this year.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was Fly Me to the Moon, an Apple Original Films production which launched with only $10 million. It trailed holdovers Inside Out 2, in third with $20.8 million; and A Quiet Place: Day One, in fourth place with $11.8 million.

Sony distributed Fly Me to the Moon, the Greg Berlanti-directed film about a marketing executive brought in to sell the space race to the American public, and, later, stage a fake moon landing just in case. It opened in 3,356 locations this weekend, attracting an audience that was mostly over 45.

In limited release, A24 opened Sing Sing, an early Oscar contender, in four theatres in New York and Los Angeles. With sellouts in both locations, it made $137,119, one of the best limited openings of the year. The film from director Greg Kwedar is about an arts programme at the prison and features many real-life participants, including Clarence Maclin in his film début. Sing Sing will continue playing on four screens through July and expand nationwide in August.

Finally, Twisters, which opens in North America on Thursday, began its international roll-out this weekend, earning $11.5 million from 38 markets, including in Australia, Mexico and Brazil.