'Minions' box office: $115.2 million. What's driving the appeal?
This weekend the highly anticipated 鈥淒espicable Me鈥� spin-off 鈥淢inions鈥� opened at the box office with record numbers, garnering $115.2 million in North America and making it the second biggest animated film opening in history.
Minions first appeared as the ridiculous, and often times unhelpful, assistants of the villain Gru in 鈥淒espicable Me.鈥�
What makes the villain-serving yellow minions so appealing?
Steve Carell, who plays 鈥淕ru,鈥� put it this way:
鈥淭hey鈥檙e funny and they鈥檙e physical and they鈥檙e violent in a very benign way. You can鈥檛 not love them,鈥� .
A BuzzFeed list titled 鈥溾�� includes 鈥渕inions are always down to party鈥� with an image featuring a group of the yellow henchmen under a straw-thatched umbrella wearing leis and eating bananas. The list includes images of minions in all kinds of ridiculous situations, highlighting their appeal 鈥� their ability to make any situation humorous.
Some of the recent hype around the minions may be a result of Universal Pictures鈥� huge promotional campaign. , the campaign is the 鈥渓argest and most comprehensive in its history.鈥�
McDonald鈥檚 is doing both an adult and kids promotion in its restaurants, with Happy Meal toys at the center. General Mills, Tic Tac, and Comcast are all doing advertising tie-ins as well.
, 鈥�'Minions' originally had a release date of December, 19, 2014, but the studio moved the Illumination Entertainment film into summer 2015 and, by doing so, was able to extend the marketing push through a variety of promotions.鈥�
David O鈥機onnor, Universal鈥檚 executive VP of global brand marketing and partnerships, the wild success of the marketing campaign saying, 鈥淭he minions have permeated pop culture so [they have] broad appeal from ages 3 to 84. We started hearing from brands [around the world], so it was a very coordinated global effort: we worked with all the local offices around the globe.鈥�
And it seems like the 鈥渂road appeal鈥� is still going strong. has almost three and a half million likes and features thousands of pictures of minions along with funny phrases.
, 鈥淢inions鈥� came second to 鈥淪hrek the Third鈥檚鈥� $121.6 million kickoff in 2007.
Nick Carpou, Universal鈥檚 domestic distribution chief told Variety, that he became aware of the minions鈥� 鈥渃ultural currency鈥� when he saw a story at a mall promoting the 鈥淒espicable Me鈥� characters.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e everywhere, those yellow guys. In a way they exist in the culture without even having a film attached to them.鈥�
As Jeff Brock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations, told Variety, 鈥淲ith anything that opens over $100 million, you breach all demographics. The Minions are the stars of the 鈥楧espicable Me鈥� franchise鈥�. [K]ids love them, teens love the, and adults love them.鈥�
