- Toy Story 5 £5,725,337 – £37,954,828
Down 37.5% in its third weekend
£1.9m 19.9% (-40.8% £1.9m) Fri; £2.39m 42% (-32.9% £3.6m) Sat; £2.16m 38% (-41.5% £3.7m) Sun
22nd biggest third weekend between The Jungle Book and Avengers: Infinity War (close to Jurassic World, Avatar, Peter Rabbit and Top Gun: Maverick) and 51st biggest inflated third weekend between Love Actually and The Lion King (2019) (close to Harry Potter & Prisoner of Azkaban, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Shrek Forever After and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith)
3rd biggest Pixar third weekend between Inside Out 2 and Toy Story 4 (close to Toy Story 2, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 3 and A Bug’s Life) and 8th biggest inflated third weekend between Inside Out 2 and Incredibles 2 (close to Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4, Ratatouille and Up).
Showing while Toy Story 5 might have held off Minions & Monsters, it still looks less than it should have taken in its third weekend. Minions & Monsters suffered badly from opening so close, but Toy Story 5 also suffered, and it could see Toy Story 5 coming short of £60m depending on how Moana opens this weekend.
This, of course, is the problem with day-and-date releasing, as both films opened several weeks before the school holidays ended. While Toy Story 5 did benefit from schools closing for a few days last week due to record temperatures, both films would have done much better had they been delayed a few weeks. The problem is release dates are now tied to global streaming release dates, likely to be October for both films.
Third weekends
2019’s Toy Story 4 dropped 33%, taking £5,543,052/£6,149,563 #2 and £36,039,107 54.6% of £66,030,065/£73,254,961 behind Spider-Man: Far From Home #1 £14,148,624
2010’s Toy Story 3 dropped 42.5% £4,666,021/£6,281,484 and £51,524,519 70.2% of £73,405,113/£98,819,320; Knight And Day #2 £2,404,163 (new); Inception #3 £2,259,595; Step Up 3D #4 £2,015,403 (new) and Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore #5 £1,553,005 (new); Toy Story 3 was only the 15th film to take £50m+ now 54; Toy Story 5 will be the 55th.
2000’s Toy Story 2 dropped 3.3% £6,301,601/£11,876,664 and £31,413,850 72.2% of £43,491,021/£81,967,783
1996’s Toy Story dropped 14.6% £2,073,045/£4,079,875 and £11,451,995 51.3% of £22,297,733/£43,883,253
2010’s Toy Story 3 dropped 61% £8,115,193/£10,924,823 and £39,791,223 54.2% of £73,405,113/£98,819,320
Other recent Pixar sequels third weekends
2024’s Inside Out 2 dropped 22.6% £6,003,526 and £31,956,489 54.4% of £58,721,001
2018’s Incredibles 2 dropped 24.3% £5,146,128/£5,709,208 and £33,216,759 59.2% £56,100,000/£62,238,366
Putting them into perspective, Toy Story 5’s third weekend was similar to beloved classic Pixar original animated films released over 20 years ago, showing that the third weekend is far from impressive as analysts believe. Especially factoring in no premium formats, no 3D, limited premium seating and much lower children’s ticket prices.
1999’s A Bug’s Life dropped 4.9% £4,311,358/£8,202,845 and £19,923,282 67.9% of £29,310,536/£55,766,602
2002’s Monsters, Inc. dropped 26.6% £4,234,293/£7,905,988 and £28,968,748 77.7% of £37,264,502/£69,577,776
2003’s Finding Nemo dopped 34.3% £3,887,996/£7,014,155 and £21,829,393 58.7% of £37,178,973/£67,072,877
103rd biggest between Shrek The Third and Paddington (close to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, The Simpsons, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Deadpool) and 231st biggest inflated between Madagascar and Sherlock Holmes (close to Aladdin (1993), Gremlins, Minority Report and Fantastic Beasts 2).
The Inconvenient Truth
Toy Story 5, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Moana, and the dozens of sequels, reimaginations and reboots Disney has made over the last 15 years of Disney and 20th Century Fox films and TV shows are not films. They are emotional manipulation disguised as entertainment.
They are like a Big Mac meal or a sugary breakfast cereal that has vitamins added to make it look healthy and good for children. The sugar is still there. The manipulation is still there. The vitamins are just a marketing tactic.
Children of all ages fall for it every time. The original was beloved by audiences. The sequel sells the memory of that love back to them.
The Taylor Swift Connection
It is similar to why I listen to Taylor Swift’s All Too Well hundreds of times a month instead of many of her other songs. There is comfort in the familiar. The song captures a specific moment, a specific feeling, a specific memory. It is not better than her later work; it is just the one they remember.
People watch their favourite TV show again and again. They read their favourite book until the pages fall out. They listen to the same song hundreds of times. The sequel is not a new experience. It is a familiar one, repackaged and sold back to them.
The vitamins are the new scenes, the new characters, the new jokes. They are added to make the product look fresh. But the sugar is the nostalgia. The manipulation is the emotional beats. The vitamins are just a marketing tactic.
Watching The Devil Wears Prada 2 I was just frustrated watching seeing Andy falling back to the woman she was 20 years earlier despite being an award-winning journalist for the last 20 years, she sees Miranda and she regresses to who she was desperate for Miranda’s praise, its Stockholm Syndrome, why does she feel that she has to still save Miranda when surely should be on Emily’s side?
Lilypad: The Jessica Rabbit of Toy Story 5
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit is the femme fatale who is actually not a villain. She says the famous line: “I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”
Disney has partnered with LeapFrog to release a real Lilypad tablet for children aged 3-5. The film cannot make Lilypad the enemy because Disney needs children to want the real-world tablet.
Toy Story 5: The Sugary Cereal of Cinema
Toy Story films have always been nostalgic for adults. But the fourth and fifth entries have added elements that are cynically designed to get a reaction from the audience that sobbed like babies at the end of Toy Story 3.
The emotional additions to Toy Story 5 felt like a sugary breakfast cereal that has vitamins added to make it look healthy and good for children. The sugar is still there. The manipulation is still there. The vitamins are just a marketing tactic.
- 2. Minions & Monsters £4,376,675 – NE
Includes £861,844 from previews Weds/Thurs
Took £1.31m Friday 14.71%; £2.39m 35.44% Saturday; £1.31m 30.15% Sunday
397th biggest opening weekend between Ghostbusters (2016) and Ocean’s Eight (close to Mufasa: The Lion King, Marley & Me, Monsters vs. Aliens and Pitch Perfect 3) and 586th biggest inflated opening between Kevin & Perry Go Large and Maid In Manhattan (close to The Lego Movie: The Second Part, Cars, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical and The Flash).
19th biggest opening of the last 52-week weekend between Downton Abbey 3 and Backrooms (close to Hoppers, The Housemaid, Scary Movie and Goat).
144th widest opening in 654 cinemas (2,500 screens+) similar to I Swear, Six The Musical, Disney’s Snow White, Yesterday and Stan and Ollie; 312th 600+ cinema opening since 2015’s Jurassic World.
Minions & Monsters: Box Office Disaster or Scheduling Victim?
Minions & Monsters opened much lower than the first two Minion films. It will be blamed on franchise fatigue, despite receiving better reviews than the last film. But it was predictably going to open much lower, being forced to open only 13 days after Toy Story 5, meaning the two films cannibalised each other. This was more evident in the UK, as school holidays don’t start in most of the UK for three weeks.
The Nolan Requirement
In 2023, one of Christopher Nolan’s requirements was that Universal Pictures couldn’t release a film within a month of Oppenheimer. He wanted the studio completely focused on his film, so The Last Voyage of the Demeter was released four weeks later. After the success of Oppenheimer, Universal Pictures likely accepted similar terms for The Odyssey, forcing the studio to open Minions & Monsters far too close to Toy Story 5.
Minions & Monsters, of course, wouldn’t have had any impact on The Odyssey, playing to a much younger audience. Having a bigger gap between the two films would have been hugely beneficial for Minions & Monsters, especially internationally, as it would have opened closer to the summer holidays.
Nolan’s Ego
While The Odyssey will be a massive box office hit for Universal Pictures, Minions is a far more valuable property for the studio. Despicable Me and Minions films take far more at the box office, merchandising, and theme parks. Minions & Monsters’ budget was a third of The Odyssey, with no percentage points deals and first-dollar profit as Christopher Nolan likely has.
After the massively successful Barbenheimer showed it was possible to open two very different films over the same weekend, it would have surely been better if Minions & Monsters opened the same weekend as The Odyssey or the weekend afterwards. But Christopher Nolan’s narcissism made this not possible.
Christopher Nolan is the only director studios will let control every aspect of the release. But at what cost? We saw this in 2020 after his Washington Post made Tenet the “saviour of cinema” film, forcing Warner Bros to open the film immediately after they reopened. This forced Warner Bros to have Project Popcorn, which ended up with the director moving to Universal.
The question is: if The Odyssey isn’t as big as expected, and after Universal Pictures left hundreds of millions on the table for Minions & Monsters, will they rush to finance Christopher Nolan’s next films?
The Bigger Picture
The third instalment of the Minions prequel series, the seventh instalment of the Despicable Me series, and the 17th Illumination film. Up till now, Minions and Despicable Me have performed very strongly in the UK, and all apart from the first Despicable Me film have taken similar box office figures. Why Minions & Monsters is a massive disappointment in the UK — reviews were very positive, so the problem wasn’t the film. It was just something the studio did in December 2024 after dating Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on July 17, 2026.
Minions & Monsters was due to be released in June 2027 but was brought forward a year in January after they delayed Shrek 5 to 2027. Universal Pictures had dated Shrek 5 for June 2026 in July 2024.
After Universal Pictures had attempted twice over the last decade to relaunch their Monster film series, they thought Minions & Monsters could succeed after the Dark Universe failed to launch. The irony is that they sacrificed their most reliable franchise for an expensive gamble that may not pay off.
2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru opened £10,424,758 (£2.7m Friday and £4.2m Saturday and £3.52m on Sunday; 7% from 3D (£729,432 from 142 screens (compared to 28% of Minions BO coming from 3D in 2015 taking £45,764,546
2024’s Despicable Me 4 opened £8,856,183 (£2.43m Friday; £3.99m Saturday: £2.436m Sunday) taking £48,001,206
2017’s Despicable Me 3 opened £11,154,904, taking £47,562,575
2015’s Minions opened £11,556,856 (3D took £3,194,166) taking £47,091,449
2013’s Despicable Me 2 opened £14,822,427 (£4,868,323 previews 33%) taking £46,815,412
2010’s Despicable Me opened £3,664,376, taking £19,750,505
In the days leading up to the opening of Minions: The Rise of Gru, the Minions Cult went viral on TikTok; the hashtag #MinionsCult had been viewed over 6.1m times by Thursday on TikTok and by Monday lunchtime had over 311.7m views (366m views on Tuesday); many fans dressed in suits went to the cinema. While seen as a bit of fun, some took it too far and ruined the cinema experience for other cinemagoers.
Minions & Monsters opened only 13 days after Toy Story 5; it’s the first time Illumination and Pixar have gone head-to-head with their biggest animated tentpole.
While Scottish school holidays started on Wednesday, it was madness to open it on Wednesday, as there must have been thousands of 9 am – 12 pm shows that will have a handful of people at most in. In 2012, 20th Century Fox opened Ice Age: Continental Drift in Scotland three weeks before the rest of the UK opening with £853,226 and three weeks later opened £10,087,052 in the UK. Disney also opened Brave in Scotland earlier than the rest of the UK in 2012.
Minions & Monsters should have opened July 24; that would have given it a month gap for Toy Story 5 and two weeks for Moana, might have been close to Spider-Man: Brand New Day but would have played to a different audience than The Odyssey. There was no reason for the studios not to be able to release a film so close to The Odyssey, especially as it plays to a completely different demographic and after Barbenheimer in 2023.
Minions: The Rise of Gru opened three weeks after Lightyear in 2022, but Lightyear underperformed. In 2015, Minions opened three weeks before Inside Out, but that weekend was the start of the summer holidays; the summer holidays don’t start in the UK for another three weeks.
Minions & Monsters was a U, like all the other films of the series, while Toy Story 5 is a PG.
The last time Illumination and Pixar opened a major sequel was in 2024 when Despicable Me 4 opened 4 weeks after Inside Out 2.
In 2024, Despicable Me 4 opened #1 £8,856,183 3-day opening, now previews with Inside Out 2 down 57% in its fifth weekend £2,225,170 and £44,485,366 75.8% £58,721,001/£60,769,408.
Minions & Monsters can’t open later, as Christopher Nolan probably has a similar requirement as he had with Oppenheimer; the studio can’t release a major film within a month of The Odyssey, so it was either July 1st or mid-August.
Minions & Monsters plays younger than Toy Story 5, while Toy Story 5 plays stronger to girls, but there will surely be cannibalisation between the two of them. This will surely see Toy Story 5 dropping 50%+ in its third weekend and Minions & Monsters opening much lower than previous films.
Minions: The Rise of Gru opened three weeks after Lightyear in 2022, but Lightyear underperformed. In 2015, Minions opened three weeks before Inside Out, but that weekend was the start of the summer holidays.
The problem with day-and-date opening is that while they opened for strong dates in the US, Toy Story opened 5 weeks before the summer holidays and Minions & Monsters three weeks before their start, which means audiences have limited time to see these films.
- 3. The Invite £799,382 – NE
Took £231k 28.91% Friday; £295k 36.92%; £212k 26.53% Sunday
2,144th biggest opening between The Shallows and Bad Santa 2 (close to Pretty Woman, Donnie Brasco, Lost in Translation and Duplicity) and 2,765th biggest inflated opening between Book Club and Kung Fu Hustle (close to True Romance, Steel Magnolias, My Cousin Vinny and Circle of Friends).
62nd biggest opening over the last 52 weeks between Jackass 5 and The Bride! (close to Shelter, Song Sung Blue, Mother’s Pride and Roofman).
Opened in 586 cinemas 354th widest opening similar to Back To The Future (40th Anniversary Re-Issue), Ant-Man and The Wasp and Fifty Shades of Grey; 791st 500+ cinema opening since 2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
While opening wide in the UK The invite opened on a platform release two weeks ago, expanding slowly, platform opening is very rare over the last 20 years in the UK especially for a non-award contender. As the gamble is open and find an audience if not the film might never go wide, so films like these are opening far too wide.
Directed by Olivia Wilde, her third film after 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling opened £2,771,935, taking £9,995,806, and 2019’s Booksmart opened £632,363.
Rereleased as counter-programming to summer tentpoles and boosted by A24 marketing influence, even though it’s being released by Black Bear in the UK. The film has received positive reviews and will target adults.
English-language remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs, starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton and directed by Olivia Wilde. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, receiving positive reviews; following the screening, several studios were bidding to acquire the film; A24 acquired US rights, and Black Bear acquired UK rights.
The Seth Rogen Problem
In a recent interview, promoting the film, Seth Rogen spoke about how reviews have affected his mental health. They often feel like a personal attack. He said:
“I worked my way up to not having to deal with that much personal conflict face to face, but I will have a cultural institution tell everyone that I suck.”
Rogen’s point is simple: creators do not set out to make bad films. They put years of work into them. They care about them. A review that attacks the film feels like an attack on them.
- 4. Supergirl £786,477 – £4,520,476
Down 71.1% in its second weekend
£217k 27.6% (-69% £700k) Fri; £324k 41.2% (-58.7% £785k) Sat; £239k 30.4% (-64% £662k) Sun
1,465th biggest second weekend between Ghost Town and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (close to Cowboys & Aliens, Send Help, King Arthur and The Island) and 2,038th biggest inflated second weekend between Warcraft: The Beginning and Hope Springs (close to Gemini Man, Arthur 2: On the Rocks, From Dusk Till Dawn and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story).
43rd biggest second weekend over the last 52-week weekend between Send Help and Crime 101 (close to Regretting You, Masters Of The Universe, The Running Man and Mortal Kombat 2).
While Supergirl is being singled out as a failure of the female-led superhero genre, it is actually part of a much broader and deeper pattern of underperformance that includes several prominent male-led films.
The evidence from the summer of 2026 shows that Supergirl is not an isolated case but rather a symptom of a larger shift in audience behaviour. It sits alongside a string of male-led, high-concept films that have similarly struggled to meet expectations or turn a profit.
Over the last 9 months, male-led high-concept films have also underperformed, but they haven’t received the same hostility, including The Mandalorian & Grogu, Masters Of The Universe, The Running Man, Predator: Badlands and Mortal Kombat 2.
The Double Standard in Focus
While all these films underperformed, the conversation around Supergirl has been distinctly different. Analysts have been quick to frame it as part of a broader trend of rejection for female-led superhero movies. The stark contrast is clear:
- The Frame: The failure of male-led films is attributed to factors like “franchise fatigue”, “audience selectivity”, or the challenge of adapting “1980s IP”. The Running Man and Masters of the Universe are seen as victims of the market.
- The Frame for Supergirl: Its failure is attributed by some to a “resurgent misogyny among the core fan base” and a “rejection of female-led superhero movies,” with one analyst noting he doesn’t understand why female superheroes in particular have fallen so completely after such sensational starts.
The framing of Supergirl as a uniquely female-driven failure ignores the fact that it is part of a much wider challenge across the entire superhero and high-concept genre. Male-led films are just as susceptible to the new market realities that Supergirl is facing.
Supergirl is far from a good film. But it does not deserve the toxic negativity it has received. Warner Bros. has made many far worse comic-book films. And being that it is a female superhero film, there could be elements of misogyny in some of the reviews.
Over the last 40 years, there have been many more that failed to match the success of male superhero films, as seen with Supergirl. After the huge success of Superman in the 70s, they made a spinoff, Supergirl, and it was a critical and box office failure.
There is surely some misogyny, as of course it’s Superman vs Supergirl, and as men are the key demographic for comic-book films, men don’t seem to believe women can be as heroic wearing tights and Spandex.
Female-led superhero movies have often been set up to fail because they followed male-led entries that had already damaged their franchises. Supergirl (1984) followed Superman III. Catwoman (2004) followed Batman & Robin. Elektra (2005) followed Daredevil. Each time, the studio waited until the franchise was already in decline before greenlighting the female-led spinoff.
The question is, will lessons be learnt from Supergirl, or will the lesson Warner Bros will take is that they were right to write off Batgirl and not release it?
- 5. Obsession £494,494 – £17,559,289
Down 15.4% in its eighth weekend.
£165k 33.4% (-14% £192k) Fri; £209k 42.3% (+2.5% £204k) Sat; £117k 23.7% (-38% £189k) Sun
86th biggest eighth weekend between Notting Hill and Finding Nemo (close to The Housemaid, Joker, The Mask and Moulin Rouge) and 185th biggest inflated eighth weekend between The Theory Of Everything and The English Patient (close to Sleeping With The Enemy, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Cape Fear and Dead Poets Society).
389th biggest between I, Robot and Tarzan (close to Armageddon, Last Christmas, Tenet and Taken 3) and 685th biggest inflated between Alvin and the Chipmunks and F9 (close to The Village, Lost in Translation, Parenthood and The Proposal).
5th biggest horror after It £32.30m; The Woman In Black £21.33m; It: Chapter Two £18.91m; The Conjuring: Last Rites £18.33m; but all of these films were straightforward horror films.
The Final Word
After eight weeks, Obsession will leave the top five this week. A film few expected to last more than two weeks in the top five, as it was marketed as a typical front-loaded horror. But audiences, and women specifically, saw it for something the studio didn’t realise at the time: it was as much a social horror as Get Out and Nope. The only difference was that it was about toxic masculinity.
It also proved that:
- Audiences will still show up for something new.
- Word-of-mouth is still the most powerful marketing tool.
- A $1m horror film can outlast $200m tentpoles.
The industry will not learn from it. But that does not make the lesson any less real.
——————-
2026 BO is currently up 11% from 2025.
The weekend’s top 10 box office took £13,571,700, down 9.9% from last weekend’s £15,066,080: 1,576,272 admissions, down 9.4% from 1,740,221 admissions.
19th biggest weekend of the last 52 weeks between 19 December 2025 #1 Avatar: Fire And Ash £9,015,796 (65.86%) and 18 July 2025 #1 Superman £4,877,459 (36.40%)
69th biggest since cinemas reopened out of 294 weeks between 01 March 2024 #1 Dune Part 2 £9,279,080 (68.18%) and 18 July 2025 #1 Superman £4,877,459 (36.40%)
356th biggest top 10 of the last 25 years (out of 1,2645) between 12 August 2016 #1 Suicide Squad £4,241,508 (31.21%) and 10 July 2015 #1 Minions £4,154,359 (30.64%) and 728th biggest inflated between 07 August 2009 #1 The Ugly Truth £1,976,043 (21.05%) and 26 January 2007 #1 Rocky Balboa £1,705,180 (21.44%)
The top 3 took £10,901,394 (80.3%) of the top 10; Toy Story 5 42.2% (£5,725,337); Minions & Monsters 32.25% (£4,376,675); The Invite 5.89% (£799,382)
440th biggest percentage share #1 (42.19%) between 24 November 2023 #1 Napoleon £5,235,706 (42.19%) and 15 June 2007 #1 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer £4,137,169 (42.15%)
490th biggest admissions (714,774) between 03 October 2003 #1 Bad Boys 2 £3,175,258 (715,148) and 22 July 2016 #1 The BFG £5,288,529 (713,702)
Down 32.88% from 2025; (£20,218,867); Jurassic World: Rebirth (£12,493,782); Hot Milk (£87,350); #1 Jurassic World: Rebirth £12,493,782 1st week 683 screen (61.77% of top 10)
Up 55% from 2024; (£8,755,143); MaXXXine (£388,043); Blue Lock The Movie – Episode Nagi (£118,565); The Mummy (25th Anniversary 4K Restoration) (£101,404); Kill (£74,884); The Conversation (50th Anniversary 4K Restoration) (£24,498); #1 Inside Out 2 £5,127,182 4th week 15% drop 728 screens (58.56% of top 10)
Up 18.41% from 2023; (£11,461,680); Elemental (£3,049,002); Insidious: The Red Door (£2,279,084); #1 Elemental £3,049,002 1st week 623 screens (26.6% of top 10)
Down 302.6% from 2022 (£19,545,957); Minions: The Rise Of Gru (£10,424,758); Nitram (£41,909); The Railway Children (Re: 2022) (£14,471); #1 Minions: The Rise Of Gru £10,424,758 1st week 631 screens (70.92% of top 10)
Up 126.86% from 2021 (£5,982,414); Freaky (£344,918); Another Round (£205,266); French Exit (£14,808) #1 Fast & Furious 9 £2,681,393 2nd week 56% drop 609 screens (44.82% of top 10)
Up 10,305% 2020: (£130,433); #1 Onward £21,626 47 screens (16.58%) no new releases 1st week reopening after lockdown 1.
Down -45.05% from 2019; (£24,700,057); Spider-Man: Far From Home (£14,148,624); Westlife – The Twenty Tour Live (£899,488); Midsommar (£812,052); The Queen’s Corgi (£520,540); Anna (£198,391); Don’t Look Now (4K Restoration) (£13,977); #1 Spider-Man: Far From Home £14,148,624 1st week 635 screens (57.3% of top 10)
Up 143.64% from 2018: (£5,570,742); The First Purge (£1,778,157); The Beatles Yellow Submarine (50th Anniversary) (£163,155); Uncle Drew (£151,337); Whitney (£142,936); #1 The First Purge £1,778,157 1st week 481 screens (31.92% of top 10)
Down 30.86% from 2017: (£19,630,337); Despicable Me 3 (£11,154,904); Baby Driver (£3,605,705); All Eyez on Me (£912,662); The House (£487,542); Alone in Berlin (£108,047); #1 Despicable Me 3 £11,154,904 1st week 608 screens (56.8% of top 10)
Down 11.69% from 2016: (£15,368,987); Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (£4,042,959); Central Intelligence (£3,050,261); Notes on Blindness (£20,049); #1 The Secret Life Of Pets £4,739,295 2nd week 601 screens 51% drop (30.8% of the top 10)
Down 13.19% from 2015; (£15,633,889); Terminator: Genisys (£3,793,617); Magic Mike XXL (£1,575,092); Amy (£523,192); Guillaume Tell – Royal Opera, London 2015 (£114,673); #1 Minions £6,238,498 2nd week 586 screens (39.9% of top 10)
Up 134.18% from 2014: (£5,795,536); Tammy (£471,429); The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared (£102,570); Don Giovanni – Glyndebourne 2010 (£32,205); A Hard Day’s Night (Re: 2014) (£9,935); Vampire Academy (£111); #1 Mrs Brown’s Boys d’Movie £2,188,761 2nd week 529 screens 49% drop (37.7% of top 10)
Up 27.88% from 2013: (£10,613,251); Now You See Me (£2,898,997); The Internship (£1,248,431); The Bling Ring (£141,425); A Field in England (£21,399); Chasing Mavericks (£21,985); #1 Despicable Me 2 £3,996,837 2nd 539 screens (37.6% of top 10)
Up 162.94% from 2012 (£5,161,480); Ice Age: Continental Drift – Scotland only (£853,226); Friends with Kids (£357,520); Killer Joe (£208,553); Storage 24 (£131,342); Your Sister’s Sister (£81,098); Joyful Noise (£32,205); #1 Ice Age: Continental Drift (Scotland only) £853,226 1st week 134 screens (16.5% of top 10)
Down 12% from 2011; (£15,422,378); Transformers: Dark of the Moon (£10,728,503); Larry Crowne (£346,486); A Separation (£55,511); The Conspirator (£39,217); #1 Transformers: Dark of the Moon £10,728,503 1st week 521 screens (69.5% of top 10)
Up 22.38% from 2010: (£11,090,024); Shrek Forever After (£8,955,554); Heartbreaker (£119,742);; #1 Shrek Forever After £8,955,554 1st week 539 screens (80.7% of top 10)
Down 12.51% from 2009; (£15,513,026); Ice Age III (£7,639,884); Public Enemies (£2,228,291); #1 Ice Age III £7,639,884 1st week 526 screens (49.2% of top 10)
Down 32.66% from 2008; (£20,154,893); Hancock (£9,589,095); Kung Fu Panda (£6,069,679); The Mist (£157,394); £11,174,084); #1 Hancock £9,589,095 1st week 450 screens (47.58%)
Up 11.18% from 2007: (£12,207,040); Die Hard 4.0 (£5,004,916); Dead Silence (£22,580); #1 Shrek the Third £5,084,641 2nd week 70% drop 538 screens (41.6% of top 10)
Up 113.30% from 2006; (£6,362,835); Over the Hedge (£3,589,038); Just My Luck (£579,306); Cave of the Yellow Dog (£12,623); #1 Over the Hedge £3,589,038 1st week 504 screens (56.4% of top 10)
Up 13.96% from 2005: (£11,909,005); War of the Worlds (£8,644,787); #1 War of the Worlds £8,644,787 1st week 507 screens (72.59% of top 10)
Down 31.77% from 2004 (£19,891,077); Shrek 2 (£16,220,752); Godsend (£491,506); Highwaymen (£44,388); Club Dread (£32,265); #1 Shrek 2 £16,220,752 1st week 512 screens (81.5% of top 10)
Up 61.34% from 2003 (£8,411,961); Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (£3,273,078); Dark Blue (£70,049); #1 Charlie’s Angels: Full £3,273,078 1st week 473 screens (38.9% of top 10)
Up 68.92% from 2002 (£8,034,538); The Minority Report (£4,506,315); Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron (£719,681); #1 The Minority Report £4,506,315 1st week 426 screens (56.1% of top 10)
2025 Next week: (£13,044,565); Superman 700 screens (£6,992,902); CBeebies Musical – The Great Ice Cream Hunt (£34,334); #1 Superman £6,992,902 1st week (53.61% of top 10)
US Box Office
- Minions & Monsters – Universal Pictures
Opened $37m in 3 days and $62.04m in 5 days; received positive reviews (88% Rotten Tomatoes) and an A- CinemaScore
506th biggest opening between Oblivion and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (close to Hop, Supergirl, Cowboys & Aliens and Dumb and Dumber To).
Unlike Minions: The Rise of Gru, it didn’t have previews opening on Wednesday; Minions: The Rise of Gru took $10.75m from Thursday previews and 2015’s Minions $6.2m
Took 34% from IMAX/PLF and 12% from 3D
Entelligence said it had 4.4m admissions
Social media reach before opening was 793m across TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram, more than 2022’s Minions: Rise of Gru (surprising as it had huge TikTok coverage with Gentleminion) 668.4m and more than Toy Story 5‘s 711.8m; Zoey Deutch at 3m fans (boosted recently due to Netflix’s Voicemails for Isabelle) and Jeff Bridges 2.4m.
Ahead of opening, Minions & Monsters was expected to open between $80m-$90m lower than previous Minion films. Independence Day weekend has been historically one of the most lucrative extended weekends of the year, but this year is the 250th birthday and also the weekend had big second-round World Cup games, including USA vs Belgium. When those estimates dropped to $75m analyst started suggesting fatigue, but they never opened so close to a massive Pixar film, as even if Toy Story dropped 50%, it would have a $35m+ third weekend.
Why can’t analysts be honest about why Minions & Monsters opened lower than expected? It was due to narcissistic Christopher Nolan, who wanted Universal Pictures’ complete focus on him for two weeks before the opening of The Odyssey and four weeks afterwards. This has cost the studio hundreds of millions of dollars and harmed one of their biggest franchises. As seen with Barbie and Oppenheimer to very different films work well together, as it would have if Minions & Monsters opened the week after The Odyssey, as it would have separated it from Toy Story 5 by 5 weeks and Moana by two weeks.
The seven films of Despicable Me and Minions have taken almost $6bn worldwide over the last 16 years. Another $6bn+ has been generated from merchandising since the first film was released in 2010 and $725m+ in DVD sales.
2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru opened $109.50m/$125.1m days taking $370.54m and $940.48m WW; #2 Top Gun: Maverick $25.9m 6th w/e
$8.6m from 400 IMAX; EntTelligence it then had the highest average ticket price for an animated film $12.82; Lightyear $12.45, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 $11.76, The Bad Guys $11.32; Sing 2 $10.69
2015’s Minions opened $115.71m, taking $336.04m and $1.15bn worldwide, 71% $823.39m internationally; (55% Rotten Tomatoes) #2 Jurassic World $18.15m 5th w/e
2017’s Despicable Me 3 opened $72.43m, taking $264.62m and $1.03bn worldwide, 74% $770.17m internationally; (75% Rotten Tomatoes); #2 Baby Driver $20.55m
2013’s Despicable Me 2 opened $83.51m, taking $368.06m and $970.76m worldwide, 62% internationally, $602.7m; (59% Rotten Tomatoes) #2 The Lone Ranger $29.21m
2010’s Despicable Me opened $56.39m, taking $251.55m and $543.15m worldwide, 53% internationally $291.6m; (81% Rotten Tomatoes); #1 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $31.7m 2nd w/e
Minions: The Rise of Gru took $87.2m from 61 territories and $93.7m and $202.2m worldwide; UK $12.9m; Mexico $12.4m; Germany $4.8m; Spain $3.6m; Indonesia $3.4m; it had a staggered opening as Minions & Monsters opened with $10.3m from 10 territories last weekend.
Took $85m from 72 territories, $98.4m total, and $159.9m worldwide; China $16.4m; Germany $6.4m; UK $5.9m; Mexico $5.6m; Spain $4.3m; Italy $3.2m;
- Toy Story 5 – Walt Disney
Dropped 57% in its third weekend, $30.32m and $365.66m
69th biggest third weekend between The Grinch and Toy Story 3 (close to The Lego Movie, Up, Inside Out and The Secret Life of Pets)
EntTelligence standard average price $15.25; $19.03 PLF, $13.12 child and $16.66 child PLF
Third weekends
2019’s Toy Story 4’s dropped 43.3% $33.86m/$46.1m and $306.11m/$416.5m of $434m/$640m and $1.073bn/$1.5bn WW
2010’s Toy Story 3’s dropped 49% $30.28m/$48m and $289.1m/$457.7m of $415m/$667m and $1.067bn/$1.7bn worldwide
1999’s Toy Story 2 dropped 34.3% $18.24m/$44.9m and $140.35m/$345.1m of $245.8m/$570m and $397.37m//$1.15bn WW
1995’s Toy Story dropped 31.2% $13.87m/$39.9m and $83.1m/$238.5m of $223.3m/$630.9m and $401.15m/$1.11bn WW
Third weekends of recent Pixar sequels
2024’s Inside Out dropped 43.2% $57.52m and $469.42m of $652.98m and $1.698bn worldwide
2018’s Incredibles 2 dropped 42.2% $46.41m and $440.6m of $608.58m and $1.242bn worldwide
2016’s Finding Dory dropped 42.7% $41.81m and $372.16m of $486.29m and $1.028bn worldwide
The six Toy Story films have taken over $1.8bn in the US and $4.1bn+ worldwide; selling over $16bn in merchandising and more since 1995. As with everything for Disney, the film is just the start of the journey. Disney’s economic impact study said the franchise has generated nearly $50bn in “overall economic impact” globally. It creates the cultural event that drives the real revenue streams: around $1bn a year in global retail sales for Toy Story products.
Took $69.3m internationally from 48 territories, $398m total, and $764.3m worldwide; UK $50.3m; Australia $19.3m; Korea $14.8m; Mexico $ 59 m. Has taken $24m worldwide from IMAX.
Toy Story 5 will become the 63rd film to take $1bn worldwide, but to paraphrase Sean Parker ‘A billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Three billion dollars.” A tentpole taking $1bn worldwide was cool 20+ years ago, but now, billion-dollar films should be taking much more. $1bn film had about 150m admissions worldwide in 2006; now it’s less than half, but in reality it’s less than a third. EntTelligence average for Toy Story 5 was $15.25 and a third more for IMAX/PLF, $19.03; with tentpoles taking 30% from IMAX/PLF and making a huge dent in admissions
- Young Washington – Angel Studios
Opened $19.37m; received mixed reviews (60% Rotten Tomatoes) and an A CinemaScore
Opened slightly lower than Angel Studios estimated on Sunday ($20.8m) but ahead of tracking, as it was expected to open with $15m; these films are much harder to predict how they will connect with audiences, as the marketing is far less.
Opened just below Angel Studio’s biggest opening: 2025’s David opening $22m, taking $80.28m and $87.88m worldwide, and 2023’s Sound of Freedom ‘s $19.6m taking $184.17m and $250.47m worldwide
Opened ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US in 1776.
Chris Pratt, after seeing it posted on social media, “Get off your ass and run to the movie theatre; I’ve just seen Young Washington…it’s like The Revenant, it’s like Pride and Prejudice, it’s like Braveheart…“
2000’s The Patriot opened $22.4m over the July 4th weekend, taking $113.3m
- Supergirl – Warner Bros
Dropped 77% in its second weekend, $8.6m and $57.47m
Had the 79th biggest second weekend drop; having bigger drops included 2023’s The Marvels #64 78.1% $10.12m and 2025’s Joker: Folie à Deux #37 81.4% $7m
Predictably, Supergirl has been compared to 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux, but they are very different films; there were high expectations for Joker: Folie à Deux right up to its Venice Film Festival world premiere three weeks before opening after the huge success of Joker. While expectations had been soft for Supergirl for months.
2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux dropped 81.4% $7m and $51.55m of $58.3m and $207.5m worldwide
2024’s Madame Web dropped 61.4% $5.91m and $35.36m of $43.81m and $100.49m
2023’s The Marvels dropped 78.1% $10.12m and $64.94m of $84.5m and $206.13m worldwide
2022’s Morbius dropped 73.8% $10.2m and $57.1m of $73.86m and $167.46m worldwide
2023’s The Flash dropped 72.5% $15.14m and $87.52m of $108.13m and $271.43m worldwide
2017’s Wonder Woman dropped 43.3% $58.52m and $206.34m of $412.84m and $823.97m worldwide
Took $9.4m from 70 territories and $100.5m worldwide; UK $6m; Mexico $4.1m and Australia $3.1m; Japan $2m; Brazil $1.9m; France $1.7m.
- The Invite – A24
Expanded into 28 screens from 21, up 111% in its second weekend, $800,708 and $1.36m
Received positive reviews (94% on Rotten Tomatoes). A24 have had an amazing start of 2026 with the huge success of Marty Supreme, The Drama and Backrooms, and audiences are seeing them as they are A24 films, as audiences did 30 years ago with Miramax, as they see A24 as a stamp of authority in stylish films marketed smartly. These films were never expected to be massive hits or connect so strongly with audiences, but it shows that audiences like to be inspired and see fresh new films.
Olivia Wilde’s last directed film, Don’t Worry Darling, generated huge media coverage starring Harry Styles, opened $19.35m but received poor reviews (36% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B- CinemaScore (similar to Booksmart B+) taking $45.3m and $87.6m worldwide
Olivia Wilde’s 2019 Booksmart opened $6.93m, taking $22.68m and $24.95m worldwide
Don’t Worry Darling opened with $10.8m internationally from 61 territories and $30m globally
- Disclosure Day – Universal Pictures
Dropped 30% in its fourth weekend, $5.74m and $105.06m
910th biggest fourth weekend between Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and U-571 (close to Field of Dreams, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Die Hard and The Butterfly Effect).
2002’s Minority Report dropped 42.5% $7.21m and $110.13m of $132.07m and $358.37m worldwide
2005’s War of the Worlds dropped 41.5% $8.92m and $208.42m of $234.28m and $603.87m worldwide
2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence dropped 58.4% to $2.16m and $74.52m of $78.61m and $235.92m worldwide
Universal Pictures surrounded both Disclosure Day and Minions & Monsters for The Odyssey; Disclosure Day shouldn’t have opened as close to Toy Story 5, as having only one week of IMAX for such a big-screen visual film impacted it, as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One did in 2023, also having IMAX for only a week due to Oppenheimer.
The 34 films Steven Spielberg has directed have taken $4.8bn over the last 52 years in the US; over 1.1bn admissions and taking $14bn, showing how big his successes were over his first 19 years. They took half of the total BO: $2.3bn and $10bn inflated.
Took $6.2m internationally from 81 territories and $216.6m worldwide; UK $14.5m; Mexico $9.5m; France $7m.
- Obsession – Focus Features
Down 46% in its eighth weekend, $5.2m and $245.21m
89th biggest eighth weekend between Terms of Endearment and Jerry Maguire (close to The Fugitive, Deadpool & Wolverine, Wicked and Beauty and the Beast).
It’s hard to make direct comparisons with any other horror, as the only possible one would be 1999’s The Sixth Sense, taking $11.2m down 32.1% and $213.27m of $293.5m and $672.8m worldwide.
Obsession was released on VOD last week after 45 days, but it still held strongly in its eighth week on release.
Obsession is currently the 5th biggest film of 2026 in the US $233..8m, but Toy Story 5 has taken more in only 10 days of release ($298.07m). Will the industry remember Obsession when it’s out of the top 10 despite its success being far more lucrative than any of the films that will take more than it this year? The question is, will the industry have learned anything from Obsession?
The Final Thought
Obsession has taken $403m on a $750k budget and was acquired by Universal Pictures for $14m last year at the Toronto Film Festival. It is the first film since 1982 to increase in its second and third weekends. It is the highest-grossing live-action English-language original movie of the 2020s. The Toronto Film Festival is currently annoucinh its lineup ,, acquistion teams will be trying to find the next Obssesion.
And yet, the industry will not learn from it. Obsession is not a horror film. It is a lesson. And the industry will never learn it.
Took $13.7m from 61 territories, $57.8m total, and $403.1m worldwide; UK $17.6m; Mexico $6.8m; Australia $5.5m;
UK Box Office Top 10
Box Office Preview
Moana: A Reimagination Too Soon?
Moana is a film that should not exist, arriving just ten years after the original and two years after a billion-dollar sequel. Yet its unique heroine and a generation of young fans might just make it work anyway.
Despite much written about it being far too soon for the live-action reimagination, there is much love for Moana as it was a different kind of Disney animated film, redefining the stereotypical Disney princess that featured in almost all of their other films. As Moana says she’s not a princess but the daughter of the chief, there’s no romantic interest, she’s a leader, she looks different, moving away from the stereotypical, slender body type. This means despite being almost identical to the original film, young female audiences will still want to see it.
Disney’s current strategy is a digital-age twist on their old playbook. Between the 1940s and 2000s, they would re-release a classic animated film every seven years for the next generation. From the 1980s, a limited video release would follow the theatrical run. The live-action remakes are the modern equivalent of the straight-to-DVD sequels they churned out in the 1990s and 2000s, a way to repackage the same IP for a new audience, with minimal creative risk.
Moana 2’s success proves the character’s appeal. In 2024, the sequel opened to £12,021,342 and took £42,357,963 much more than the original 2016’s Moana opened £2,214,898 taking £20,041,031
The love for Moana is real. She was a different kind of Disney heroine, rejecting the princess label and the romantic interest, defined by leadership, strength, and a connection to her culture. The original animated film was hugely popular on Netflix before moving to Disney+ in 2019. With 37.7bn minutes between 2020 and 2025 on Disney+.
Originally, the second movie was supposed to be a streaming series for Disney+. But after those huge streaming numbers, Disney cynically turned it into a sequel film and predictably received mixed reviews despite taking over $1bn worldwide. As with all of Disney’s sequels and reimaginations its built-on nostalgia and love of the original; hype and FOMO get audiences to see them in the sequel, but audiences, after a few weeks, see them for what they really are. Disney doesn’t care, as by then they have taken $1bn.
Disney had huge success from their most popular animated films Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Lilo & Stitch and Aladdin, but despite the huge popularity of Moana, the interest in the reimagination isn’t there, likely damaged by releasing the animated sequel first. As audiences are just not embracing another Moana film so soon.
Moana will surely open close to their middle-rung animated reimaginations: The Little Mermaid (£5,012,929); Snow White (£3,856,173) and Cinderella (£3,803,799), opening about £4m, slightly ahead of Toy Story 5.
This is despite critics finally realising that Disney live-action (photorealistic animation) reimaginations are no different to Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake in 1998, which was hugely criticised for making a shot-by-shot remake, despite this being exactly what Disney have done over the last decade since 2016’s The Jungle Book. The difference, as with The Odyssey premiere reaction, critics get caught up in the premiere and hype and their nostalgia for the original film. It’s just surprising the bubble only burst with critics last year with Snow White.
Always know when Disney is concerned about a film is they push heavily with radio and TV advertising; the problem with the radio advertising for Moana is it sounds the same as the original film, and after the sequel was released two years ago, it will surely confuse many, thinking the original animated film is being re-released.
Toy Story 5 will drop 40%+ in its fourth weekend similar to 2024’s Toy Story 4 £3,801,247/£4,217,173 and £42,598,992 64.51% of £66,030,065/£73,254,961 and 2019’s Toy Story 3 £3,162,944/£4,258,014 and £58,908,398 80.2% of £73,405,113/£98,819,320
Monsters & Minions will drop to third, down 50% in its second weekend due to 20%+ of its opening from previews taking £2m-£2.5m. It will be similar to the second weekend of 2010’s Despicable Me £2,589,170/£3,485,589 and £7,585,348 38.4% of £19,750,505/£26,588,495. The positive for Monsters & Minions is that school holidays start the following weekend, and with limited family films now till early August, it could hold better over the weeks to come.
Opening as counterprogramming is Evil Dead Burn, sequel to 2013’s Evil Dead and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise. The fifth movie in the Evil Dead film series started in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead starring Bruce Campbell; It’s the sixth film of the series, with the seventh film, Evil Dead Wrath, already dated for April 2028.
2013’s Evil Dead opened £1,375,842 taking £3,355,676 and 2023’s Evil Dead Rises opened £1,477,840; £504k Friday 34%; £574k Saturday 39%; £400k Sunday 27% taking £5,288,972
It’s the first major horror to open since Obsession and Backrooms, so the trailers were widely seen, but will be the normal front-loaded horror opening £1m+ and dropping 60% second weekend.
Strong word of mouth should see The Invite hold well in its second weekend, down 40% and after eight weeks on release Obsession will drop out of the top 5.
The weekend will be defined by a simple question: after a decade of shot-by-shot remakes, has the audience finally stopped caring, or will Moana prove that Disney’s nostalgia machine still works? And audiences again don’t care what critics or influencers think.
Coming Soon
With The Odyssey opening on July 17th and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the prime summer slot has no major films opening the weekend many schools start their summer holidays. This is the problem when you have four massive tentpoles opening in a month: Minions & Monsters, Moans, The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day; rival distributors won’t take the risk to open anything as they will struggle to get screens. The problem, of course, is that until you’re under 15 and over 12, there are limited films until Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the end of the month.