‘Minions’ Earns A Record-Breaking $6.2 Million From Thursday Night Previews

Minions may have made a first step to achieving what can become one of the biggest animated openings of all time. The film earned $6.2 million from its Thursday night previews, which is the highest preview gross an animated movie ever made. To give you the sense of scale, the runner-up to Minions is Despicable Me 2, which back in 2013 earned $4.7 Million on its Tuesday previews and went on to earning a whopping $140 million from its Wednesday-Sunday debut.

Which is rather amusing, taking into account that, according to general consensus, this Despicable Me spin-off is a rather mediocre affair at the very best, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 56 percent based on 110 reviews. Most critics agree that it is good enough to pass some time with, but utterly forgettable and of not very high quality. Kristen Page-Kirby from Washington Post, for example, believes that kids don’t have to tolerate middling entertainment when there is so much to choose from – and one doesn’t need movies like this when they have masterpieces by Pixar.

“I can attest that ‘Minions’ does, in fact, have funny jokes, destroying stuff and butts. That’s … about it. And the ‘funny jokes’ is a matter of taste, in that I’m not so into bodily humor, but I recognize that I am not the target audience. The problem with a film having a ‘target audience,’ though, is that too often — especially when the target is children — it’s an excuse to be lazy.”

Not even the voice of Sandra Bullock, who plays an aspiring supervillain, does much to improve the general quality. And it’s said that she herself isn’t particularly thrilled with her performance and the job itself, according to the Inquisitr.

“While Sandra Bullock says she truly enjoyed playing the bad guy in Minions, she doesn’t really feel as though voice acting is her forte and she’s not really excited to do it again. In fact, the actress admitted this will likely be the last time she takes on a voice acting spot.”

However, nobody ever said that what appeals to gross audience and critics is one and the same thing, and when it comes to bringing their creators money, Minions seem to be doing more than okay – and it is quite likely that we may have yet another self-supporting franchise on our hands.

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]