Minions Swamp Fly Me to the Moon

Surprise of the weekend is a horror film's success
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 14, 2024 3:10 PM CDT
Despicable Me 4 Repeats
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows a scene from "Despicable Me 4."   (Illumination & Universal Pictures via 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 Sunday. But the big upset came lower on the charts, with Longlegs more than doubling the debut of the Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon, the AP reports.

Longlegs, an original horror about a serial killer starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, took in an estimated $22.6 million from 2,510 theaters. That's the best ever start for indie outfit Neon, which acquired the $10 million film for distribution. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, the film 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. Sony distributed 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.

Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

  1. Despicable Me 4, $44.7 million.
  2. Longlegs, $22.6 million.
  3. Inside Out 2, $20.8 million.
  4. A Quiet Place: Day One, $11.8 million.
  5. Fly Me to the Moon, $10 million.
  6. Bad Boys: Ride or Die, $4.4 million.
  7. Horizon: An American Saga–Chapter 1, $2.4 million.
  8. MaXXXine, $2.1 million.
  9. Indian 2, $2 million.
  10. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, $1.3 million.
(More box office stories.)

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