Sandra Bullock with the "Minions" characters at the recent premiere event in London, United Kingdom. (Photo : Facebook/Minions Official Page)
With their yellow, goggle-eyed features and difficult-to-understand babbles, Minions dominated over the weekend box office records. By the end of 2016, retail experts forecast the Minion toys would also top "Frozen" play items in terms of sales.
Entertainment Weekly reports that over the weekend, "Minions" earned about $115.2 million, making the prequel of "Despicable Me" the second-biggest animated opening of all time. Although it excludes the impact of inflation on movie ticket prices, "Minions" nevertheless still has its place in animation history by being the fourth animated movie to earn over $100 million on its first weekend.
It is just $6.4 million shy of "Shrek the Third's" record of $121.6 million, but "Minions" earned higher than "Toy Story 3's" $110.3 million. However, reckoned on opening day income, "Minions" is number one at $46.2 million when it opened on Friday, beating "Toy Story 3's" $41.7 million.
Even before the movie opened, Minion toys have already beaten play merchandise from another blockbuster movie, "Frozen." According to Daily Mail, $1.7 million worth of "Minion" toys moved from store shelves to consumer hand last week, while sales of "Frozen" toys was at $1.1 million.
If an Argos prediction that Tumbling Stuart, a "Minions" character selling for $78, would be the best-selling toy on Christmas, retail experts value sales of "Minions" play things at $202 million by end of 2016.
"Minions" is not just for playful kids, even the brainy and nerdy ones like it also. Proof is that three of the top 10 book titles are "Minions." Meanwhile, the copyright owners of the hit movie just signed licensing deals with McDonald's and Haribo. Universal, a major Hollywood studio, and Chris Meledandri, founder of Illumination Entertainment, are the joint copyright owners of "Minions."
With "Minions's" first weekend income almost 10 times that of second-placer "Jurassic World" at $18.1 million, the reports of alleged cussing Minion toys that go with McDonald's Happy Meals appear not to have affected the film at all.
