A month ago, Universal/Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” looked like the film that was truly going to get the box office performing on the level we expect in the summer. “Inside Out 2” and “A Quiet Place: Day One” were expected merely to steadily warm up the market after the terrible grosses seen in May.
That was before Disney/Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” blew past even the most optimistic expectations and became the fastest grossing animated film to top $1 billion worldwide. Now, with that film expected to add another $200 million or so to domestic totals in July, “Despicable Me 4” will look to fan the flames of this newfound momentum rather than ignite it.