The most successful July 4th movie opening ever was the latest entry in the Despicable Me franchise, which brought in over $125 million in the US and Canada. The previous record was held by Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, which was released in 2011.
The releases from the franchise have become reliable multimillion dollar tentpole events, but the record-breaking Minions 2 has had additional help from a social media movement that is completely unrelated to the film.
When film marketing budgets are being allocated, the power of platforms like TikTok can't be overlooked. Hollywood won't be able to directly influence or harness the new power of the meme crowd, but it will likely become a major new lever in the toolbox of most major movie studios.
The return to moviegoing was envisioned by economists and executives, but they probably didn't anticipate frolicking suit-and-tie-wearing teenagers. In the last few days, there have been ironic meme that have invaded the real world on social media platforms.
There was a similar meme a few years ago. At the time, some social media users posted ironic photos of themselves and others dressed up to attend a showing of the film along with the phrase, "Tickets to Joker, please." The joke ofTickets to [movie name], please, has become an ongoing joke for various film titles.
The growth of the meme appears to have been disrupted by the fact that teenagers are wearing suits to see the movie. Based on a large number of videos posted on TikTok, the suited teens range from dedicated fans to casual viewers just using the film as a means to party with a few friends.
Some movie theaters have banned groups of teens in suits from going to the movie in order to avoid food fights, loud cheering, and even fights in the theaters because of the disruptive outings.
There is a wide range of behaviors in GentleMinions groups. As new groups of people try to outdo previous participants, what starts as an innocuous activity spirals into disruption and danger. The man who died while planking and the couple that started a fire with a gender reveal are examples.
There is no way to know how much of the success of the movie is due to the meme. Concerns about returning to movie theaters due to the Pandemic may have finally turned a corner after the box office hit a milestone. The movie is closing in on its US and Canada numbers. Previous ticket sales in the franchise match the box office earning trajectory. In its last two films, Despicable Me 3 and Minions, 70% of the franchise's take came from international box office. Half of the movie's ticket sales were internationally.
Despite some of the disruptive groups involving suited teens at screenings of the film, Universal Pictures has been publicly supportive of the groups.
The GentleMinions meme is almost certainly nostalgic. When Despicable Me came out in 2010, many of the Gen Z teens now coming to screenings were either in preschool or just entering grade school, the demographic the franchise was targeting. The meme stock experience seems to be an extension of the motivation to see the film.
In addition to interest from serious investors, meme stocks took off after users decided to use the brands as a focus of ironic humor, a show of collective power, and a pushback against. Some stock holders lost a lot of money because of the meme stock posts.
The same kind of marketing is benefiting from the second movie in the series. The movie was a flop even though Sony tried to cash in on a similar meme by rereleasing it after a poor first outing.
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