How a 'Minions' meme craze among teens may have boosted the new movie's box office
- "Minions: The Rise of Gru" earned $125 million over the four-day holiday weekend.
- 34% of the movie's audience in the US was between 13 years old and 17 years old.
"Minions: The Rise of Gru" opened over the weekend with $107 million at the US box office over the three-day weekend, and $125 million over the four-day holiday — the biggest domestic debut for an animated family film during the pandemic.
The minions are immensely popular. The previous four "Despicable Me" and "Minions" movies earned a combined $3.7 billion worldwide, including $1.22 billion in the US. "Minions" and "Despicable Me 3" both grossed over $1 billion worldwide.
But this time, the box office may have been bolstered by the #GentleMinions meme made popular on TikTok, in which young people are attending theaters to see the movie in suit and ties to emulate the character Gru.
34% of the movie's audience in the US over the weekend was between 13 years old and 17 years old, according to the audience insights company PostTrak. Overall, 90% of the audience was under 25.
That tracks with social-media engagement with the movie. Twitter engagement — meaning likes, video shares, tweets, etc. — with the movie over the last two weeks was overwhelmingly young, with 73% under the age of 24, according to the social-media insights company Diesel Labs.
On TikTok, over 500 videos have used the #GentleMinions hashtag as of Wednesday, which have resulted in over 27 million video plays, according to Diesel Labs. 37% of those videos originated in the US and 31% in the UK.
When accounting for the #GentleMinions hashtag as well as a broader set of hashtags related to the movie, including #minions2 and #riseofgru, the videos have accounted for nearly 1.25 billion plays, the company said.
While "The Rise of Gru" can be classified as a children's animated movie, it's not shocking to see young people in their teens and early 20s engaging with the movie. The "Despicable Me" franchise, of which "Minions" is a part of, started in 2010, so many who grew up with the movies are likely participating in the #GentleMinions craze now.
But it's also a testament to how social-media engagement can help fuel a movie's success and practically market it for free (Universal, the movie's distributor, still spent a hefty $285 million promoting the movie, according to Deadline).
The meme craze hasn't been without its headaches, though. Some UK cinemas banned moviegoers in suits from attending screenings, according to The Guardian, citing disruptive behavior.