LOS ANGELES -- The Minions have done it again.
The yellow stars of Despicable Me 3 catapulted the Universal picture to the top box-office spot, as the sequel bested fellow new releases -- Columbia's Baby Driver and Warner Bros.' The House -- to start the Fourth of July stretch.
Despicable Me 3, from powerhouse Illumination Entertainment, pulled in $99 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters over its five-day "weekend," starting June 28.
Baby Driver debuted in second place. The Edgar Wright-directed action flick has gathered a total of $39 million since opening, also June 28.
"Edgar and our partners have made one of the most original and entertaining films in recent memory," said Adrian Smith, Sony's distribution chief. "We are so thrilled to see it received as a bona fide hit in a crowded summer season."
Audiences flocked to Baby Driver and were pleased, giving it an A-minus CinemaScore.
"How great it is to see audiences turn out to support original filmmaking," said Josh Greenstein, Sony's president of worldwide marketing and distribution. "They've made Baby Driver the surprise hit of the summer, a true sleeper."
The R-rated film did well with critics and is one of a handful of original or independent films last weekend that are notable successes. Sofia Coppola's R-rated remake of The Beguiled scored in its expansion from four to 674 theaters in its second weekend. It earned about $3.2 million to take eighth place and bested franchise fare including The Mummy and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which were both playing in more than 1,600 theaters.
Landing in third was Paramount's Transformers: The Last Knight. In its second week, the picture brought in $17 million, a 62 percent drop from its debut weekend. Domestically, the film has grossed $109 million to date.
Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman continues to soar, landing in fourth place in its fifth week with $15.7 million. Domestically, Patty Jenkins' live-action superhero flick has brought in $355 million to date.
Rounding out the top five was Disney's Cars 3 with about $9.7 million in its third week. It has grossed $125.4 million to date.
The well-reviewed romantic comedy The Big Sick also did good business in its expansion to 71 locations, earning $1.7 million. The R-rated film expands wide July 14.
"The best box office stories are further down the chart. They are all benefiting from feeling like the kind of content people are responding to on the small screen," noted Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore. "Perhaps this is the summer where Hollywood finally starts emulating the small-screen model of creating compelling original content in order to generate good will with audiences who have more options than ever before."
The only other new release, Warner Bros.' parents-gone-bad comedy The House, fizzled with a sixth-place debut at about $12 million.
This is at least the third R-rated comedy that has struggled for attention this summer amid the big-budget action including Scarlett Johansson's Rough Night and Amy Schumer's Snatched.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday (except Baby Driver and Despicable Me 3, which opened June 28), followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Wednesday by comScore. Total grosses reflect revenue through Tuesday:
Despicable Me 3, Universal, $72,434,025, 4,529 locations, $15,993 average, $99,020,280, one week.
Baby Driver, Columbia, $20,553,320, 3,226 locations, $6,371 average, $39,003,927, one week.
Transformers: The Last Knight, Paramount, $16,880,555, 4,132 locations, $4,085 average, $109,158,195, two weeks.
Wonder Woman, Warner Bros., $15,706,011, 3,404 locations, $4,614 average, $354,602,300, five weeks.
Cars 3, Disney, $9,689,279, 3,576 locations, $2,710 average, $125,350,795, three weeks.
The House, Warner Bros., $8,724,795, 3,134 locations, $2,784 average, $11,905,080, one week.
47 Meters Down, Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, $4,517,143, 2,250 locations, $2,008 average, $34,350,297, three weeks.
The Beguiled, Focus Features, $3,163,472, 674 locations, $4,694 average, $4,707,995, two weeks.
The Mummy, Universal, $3,013,395, 1,760 locations, $1,712 average, $76,143,865, four weeks.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Disney, $2,525,546, 1,674 locations, $1,509 average, $166,899,822, six weeks.
All Eyez on Me, Lionsgate, $1,824,631, 1,258 locations, $1,450 average, $43,358,982, three weeks.
The Big Sick, Lionsgate, $1,651,958, 71 locations, $23,267 average, $2,973,888, two weeks.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Disney, $1,539,519, 966 locations, $1,594 average, $384,262,086, nine weeks.
Rough Night, Columbia, $1,275,124, 1,657 locations, $770 average, $20,887,146, three weeks.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, 20th Century Fox, $1,114,612, 1,452 locations, $768 average, $69,798,274, five weeks.
Beatriz at Dinner, Roadside Attractions, $1,057,021, 683 locations, $1,548 average, $5,217,900, four weeks.
The Hero, The Orchard, $839,239, 401 locations, $2,093 average, $1,945,894, four weeks.
Megan Leavey, Bleecker Street, $484,110, 433 locations, $1,118 average, $12,096,394, four weeks.
The Book of Henry, Focus Features, $270,145, 363 locations, $744 average, $4,027,872, three weeks.
Paris Can Wait, Sony Pictures Classics, $263,580, 214 locations, $1,232 average, $4,704,374, eight weeks.
MovieStyle on 07/07/2017