BOX OFFICE: “Minions” Wear Out their Welcome, “Washington” isn’t Celebrating, “Supergirl” sinks like a Stone

There’s a LOT to unpack with this holiday weekend’s box office take, stretched to five days thanks to the early opening of “Minions & Monsters.” So let’s dig in.

The umpteenth iteration of Universal’s venerable “Despicable Me/Minions” franchise was expected to blow up, or at least do very well over the five days between Wed. and Monday — $115 million-and-up were the most recent projections.

It’s managing only a bit more than HALF that. Blame the heatwave, the general malaise of the moment (Anybody “celebrating” this July 4?) or the “Toy Story 5” spillover, but Deadline.com is projecting a $63 million opening five day weekend.

Getting real critics to even show up to review it’s been a problem — been there, chuckled and eyerolled at that.

Deadline’s been steadily lowering their best guess — $80 million is the latest they’ll own up to — but that’s not fooling anybody. The “Minions” opened Wed. ($15 million), barely edged “Toy Story 5” on Thursday and found all the wind out of their Friday ($16 million on a holiday from a popular kids’ cartoon is AWFUL).

They’ll win the weekend, as “Toy Story 5” is now looking at adding another $30 million (for second place) and “Minions & Monsters” will manage under $40 ($38-40) Fri-Sunday. But boy, talk about the bottom falling out of an overfamiliar franchise. This is the lowest opening weekend in the entire “Despicable” history.

Stick a fork in’em. They’re done.

Angel Studios’ Father of Our Country in his early years drama, “Young Washington,” is doing a decent $17 million or so over its three day opening weekend. Reviews have been mixed to indifferent, so mine is perfectly representative.

That’s good enough for third place, and a slightly better opening than expected. Angel Studios is an established player in faith-based, rural-America-appealing pictures. Maybe now they’ll discontinue their cynical practice of slapping one of a movie’s stars up over the closing credits begging audiences to buy extra tickets to game the box office take and make their movies look like bigger hits than they are.

No serious person’s taking Kelsey Grammer’s pleas seriously. Seriously.

Say it ain’t so, “Supergirl?” After a dramatically underwhelming opening weekend ($37), the label “tarnished goods” has attached itself to Milly Alcock’s big break/title role. Sexism and the Curse of DC Comics almost certainly suppressed the opening weekend. Crap comic book movies become blockbusters as a matter of course, much of the time.

But there aren’t even enough fangirls out there to push it past $10 million on its second weekend. That’s just one million people buying tickets, “Jackass” numbers.

That’s poisonous word-of-mouth at work right there, and a fourth place finish. I may go this weekend, as I do like myself an empty theater.

“Obsession” may well stick in the top five one last weekend (closing in on $250 million).

But “Disclosure Day” (cleared $100 million mark on Friday) won’t. At least Spielberg maybe consoled by holiday weekend showings of “Jaws,” which should drag a few folks in out of the heat.

“Backrooms” clings to the top ten. But the two new titles will push “Masters of the Universe” into a distant memory, and “Mandalorian & Grogu” may join it, depending on the whims of the moviegoing public.

Check back later this weekend as more data comes in and a full top ten becomes clearer.

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine
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