After a visible dull first half of the year for the theatres and film industry, things have started to look bright again. Despicable Me 4 was released on the evening before the Fourth of July. The five-holiday long weekend certainly accelerated the movie’s box office numbers. The Universal Pictures animation has garnered a massive audience since its release on Wednesday, crossing the $120 million mark.

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Despicable Me 4 cashes in $126 million at box office

Despicable Me 4 is the fourth instalment in one of the most beloved animated franchises. The film already is the owner of envious records with its previous films and now the latest edition blew $126.5 million within 5 days of its release at the box office. As reported by Deadline, the movie began with a steady start of $27 million by Friday but gained momentum and the ticket sales sky-rocketed. The Despicable Me franchise first debuted in 2010 followed by two main sequels and two Minions spin-offs.

The high engagement with the movie is not simply because of the holiday weekend. Universal Pictures and Illuminations have shelled out a good amount for the promotion campaigns. The campaign included various collaborations and approaches to gain traction from audiences of all ages.

The animated film collaborated with the NFL and sculpts of Minions and Gru in the form of inflatables, studio tour greetings, costume characters, food and beverage items, and theatre wraps at CityWalk. To gain the attention of the younger audience, an integration with Roblox was ensured along with tickets in 16 languages and an Amazon gift card program with one of the five Mega Minion Digital backpacks as a reward on redemption.

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Family movies are ruling the box office this summer

The box office noticed a successful trend in the last few months with Inside Out 2 , which is currently in its fourth weekend of release and sits on a collection of $1.22 billion, as reported by AP. The trend to notice here is the successful performance of family films at the box office. The distribution chief of Universal said, “This is one of the most beloved franchises, quite frankly, in the history of film, and certainly animation,” said Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal. “Chris Meledandri and Illumination have their finger on the pulse of what families and audiences around the world want to see.”