According to boxofficemojo.com Despicable Me rules the movie mountain after its 60.1 million dollar opening weekend. This number is impressive considering the hype behind The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has yet to die down. Also this is the second highest grossing non Pixar original animated film (The first being Kung Fu Panda). This may not seem impressive considering the huge opening numbers that Toy Story 3 put up but it does show that other companies are starting to find the right strategy. Pixar has flexed its muscles over the years, popping out one incredible film after another. Not only have they garnered financial success, but they’ve also stolen the elusive critical success that never seems to follow movies with high box office grosses.
The other interesting fact about Despicable Me is that most of its first weekend gross did not come from 3D screenings. As of late, the popular belief is that 3D screenings have inflated the overall numbers due to high ticket prices. Only 45% came from the 3D premium ticket price. This issue is two fold. One way to look at it is to say that people are rejecting the higher ticket price. This may be true although the extremely high grosses of Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon have shown otherwise. The second issue is that younger audience members simply do not enjoy the 3D experience. Lately I’ve spent a great deal of time with my younger cousins and have noticed that they do not have the patience for the glasses. Many times they prefer to watch the films in 2D.
Either way, Despicable Me’s great opening weekend has momentarily solidified the union between Universal and the upstart animation company Illumination Entertainment.