[tldr]Universal’s Minions & Monsters led the US July 4 box office with roughly $64m over its first five days, marking the weakest opening in Despicable Me franchise history and well below the $120m-plus debuts of its two predecessors. The soft start raises franchise-fatigue questions for Comcast’s most reliable animation machine.[/tldr]

Universal’s Minions & Monsters topped the US holiday box office with about $64m in North American ticket sales since its 1 July debut, according to studio estimates. It marks the weakest opening yet for the seventh film in the Despicable Me franchise.

The three-day weekend came in at $36.4m, a franchise low. Despicable Me 4 opened to $120m over the same five-day stretch two years ago, and Minions: The Rise of Gru managed $122m in 2022.

The film still won the weekend comfortably, with Toy Story 5 holding on in the top ranks and Supergirl tumbling 74% in its second frame. For Comcast’s Universal and Chris Meledandri’s Illumination, though, the numbers show wear on a famously durable machine.

Illumination remains Hollywood’s most reliable animation house, and it is the studio behind the record-breaking Super Mario Bros Movie, the payoff of Nintendo’s decades-long flirtation with Hollywood. Its franchises have earned billions for Universal on comparatively modest budgets.

Animation’s stress test

The soft opening lands amid wider questions about sequel fatigue and shifting family viewing habits, as audiences wait for streaming windows that studios have spent a decade reshuffling. The cinema’s loss is often the couch’s gain.

Technology is also reshaping the product itself, with AI tools already editing and dubbing Hollywood films and algorithms increasingly deciding what audiences watch next. Animation, the most software-driven corner of filmmaking, tends to feel such shifts first.

The franchise playbook now extends well beyond cinemas, into theme parks, merchandise, and game tie-ins. A soft theatrical debut dents the flywheel without stopping it.

A $64m holiday weekend would delight most studios, and the Minions will be fine. But when even Illumination’s little yellow bankers slow down, Hollywood’s sure things look a little less sure.