'Minions' prequel sets July 4 record with $125.2M in home ticket sales
Minions: The Rise of Gru (CMCSA) built on its three-day weekend lead with the July 4 holiday, and set an Independence Day weekend record in the process.
The film scored a total $125.2M in domestic gross ticket sales during the four days, running past 2011's previous record-holder for the same weekend, Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($115.9M).
The success is being watched as a bellwether for the success of family films, which had been a left-behind genre as cinemas struggled their way back from pandemic closures.
It's also a contrast to the colder reception found by Pixar's (DIS) Lightyear - which added $7.9M over the long weekend to land to $106.7M total domestic take in three weeks of release. Lightyear opened June 17 to "just" $50.6M in more than 4,200 theaters.
The small, yellow, gibberish-speaking Minions also may translate internationally: The film has drawn a worldwide total of $216.9M so far.
Coming in second place for the extended weekend period was Top Gun: Maverick (PARA) (PARAA), which added $33M to bring its domestic total to $571.5M; it was ahead of Elvis (WBD), which hit $23.5M to bring its cumulative total to $71.8M, and Jurassic World Dominion (CMCSA), where $19.7M added on to a domestic total of $335.9M. The Black Phone (CMCSA) has turned out as a low-budget horror hit, hitting $14.5M over the long weekend to bring its domestic cumulative gross to $49.6M.
Exhibitors saw some mixed results as stock market action returned Tuesday: AMC Entertainment (AMC) fell 5.4% during the regular session; Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWF) -6.1%; Cinemark (CNK) +4.1%; (IMAX); Marcus (MCS) +0.7%; Reading International (RDI) -0.3%; Cineplex (OTCPK:CPXGF) +9.4%; National CineMedia (NCMI) +3.4%. 
Universal's (CMCSA) new film is helping it play catch-up to Paramount (PARA) (PARAA), the top-grossing studio so far in 2022 thanks to the Top Gun sequel.