Family Box Office Is Back and 3 More Lessons From ‘Minions’ Sequel’s Record $125 Million Debut

thewrap.com:

breaking a decade-old July 4th holiday-weekend box office record and becoming the 11th animated film in box office history and the first since “Frozen II” to earn an opening weekend of over $100 million.

The “Minions” sequel tallied $125 million over the four-day holiday weekend, cementing the idea that family audiences feel comfortable returning the theaters in large numbers after a long pandemic-fueled lull.The $400 million global run of Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” this past spring was the first sign that family films were making a comeback, but the struggles of Disney/Pixar’s “Lightyear” last month created some doubt in Hollywood over whether the video game adaptation’s success was a fluke.

Those doubts can be put to rest. “As consumer concerns over COVID are easing and studios are releasing movies that go beyond the core 18 to 24-year-old males that fueled much of the box office revenue in 2020 and 2021, 2022 has seen a slow but arguably seismic shift back toward the classic ‘four quadrant’ marketplace,” Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian said. “We can now add animated films to the list of genres that can indeed find favor with a massive number of moviegoers around the world, and this is great news for studios and exhibitors who can now count on yet another genre to deliver audiences to theaters,” he added.

Here are some other takeaways from this weekend: 1. July is going to be as big for theaters as June — if not biggerThe $968 million overall domestic total for the month of June was the highest monthly total seen at the box office since theaters reopened — and the biggest since December 2019.