NCMI - 'Minions' prequel sets July 4 record with $125.2M in home ticket sales

Minions: The Rise of Gru ( CMCSA ) built on its three-day weekend lead with the July 4 holiday, and set an Independence Day weekend record in the process.

The film scored a total $125.2M in domestic gross ticket sales during the four days, running past 2011's previous record-holder for the same weekend, Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($115.9M).

The success is being watched as a bellwether for the success of family films, which had been a left-behind genre as cinemas struggled their way back from pandemic closures.

It's also a contrast to the colder reception found by Pixar's ( DIS ) Lightyear - which added $7.9M over the long weekend to land to $106.7M total domestic take in three weeks of release. Lightyear opened June 17 to "just" $50.6M in more than 4,200 theaters.

The small, yellow, gibberish-speaking Minions also may translate internationally: The film has drawn a worldwide total of $216.9M so far.

Coming in second place for the extended weekend period was Top Gun: Maverick ( PARA ) ( PARAA ), which added $33M to bring its domestic total to $571.5M; it was ahead of Elvis ( WBD ), which hit $23.5M to bring its cumulative total to $71.8M, and Jurassic World Dominion ( CMCSA ), where $19.7M added on to a domestic total of $335.9M. The Black Phone ( CMCSA ) has turned out as a low-budget horror hit, hitting $14.5M over the long weekend to bring its domestic cumulative gross to $49.6M.

Exhibitors saw some mixed results as stock market action returned Tuesday: AMC Entertainment ( AMC ) fell 5.4% during the regular session; Cineworld ( OTCPK:CNNWF ) -6.1% ; Cinemark ( CNK ) +4.1% ; ( IMAX ); Marcus ( MCS ) +0.7% ; Reading International ( RDI ) -0.3% ; Cineplex ( OTCPK:CPXGF ) +9.4% ; National CineMedia ( NCMI ) +3.4% .

Universal's ( CMCSA ) new film is helping it play catch-up to Paramount ( PARA ) ( PARAA ), the top-grossing studio so far in 2022 thanks to the Top Gun sequel .

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