When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn't about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysteri…

While co-director Pierre Coffin gives voice to the minions—the gibberish-speaking, tic-tac shaped creatures of the Despicable Me franchise—the series itself given voice to Kyla Balda, with his first pair of directorial outings. Following the first Minions feature, Balda turned to Despicable Me 3, continuing to seek…

Universal Pictures crossed $5 billion at the global box office for the second time in the studio's 105-year history with The Fate of the Furious and Illumination Entertainment’s Despicable Me 3 revving up their 2017 coffers. The global total to date for the studio, specifically, is $5.003 billion, which breaks out as…

UPDATE, WRITETHRU Tuesday AM with actuals: Two weeks before Thor: Ragnarok comes hammering into China, Kingsman: The Golden Circle suited up in the Middle Kingdom on Friday, bowing to a stylish $39.5M. In a total 70 markets this frame, the Fox/MARV Films title added $48.1M, thrusting it back to the top spot on the int…

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Blade Runner 2049, the Denis Villeneuve-helmed sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 cult classic took flight in 63 overseas markets this weekend, hunting down $50.2M at the international box office. Sony co-financed the pic with Alcon and is releasing outside North America where the weekend is coming in low…

Illumination/Universal's Despicable Me 3 has made the Gru-vy leap past the $1B worldwide box office mark. With Thursday's grosses, the Kyle Balda/Pierre Coffin-helmed pic has taken $741.4M at the international box office and $259.05M domestically. This is the second Universal title to cross the threshold this year…

UPDATE, WRITETHRU: Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk sailed into China this weekend with a No. 1 start and over 50% of the Top 5 films at an estimated $30M (RMB 196M) on 15,000 screens. The full international box office weekend on the Warner Bros title is $36.5M in 60 markets, making it the No. 1 movie at offshore…

FX continues to stock up on big movie titles as theatrical films more and more deliver stronger ratings for basic cable networks than off-network series, making them a good investment. FX, which was an early adopter of the strategy, has picked up another 17 2017 movies over the past seven months from Fox, Universal…

TUESDAY UPDATE (with actuals & Valerian figures): Far and away the leader of the pack, Wolf Warriors 2 ran off with the weekend at the international box office. That was thanks to a China performance that pushed it to $470M through Sunday, and to an all-time record-breaking RMB 3.4B ($506M) through Monday midnight to…

Illumination’s Despicable Me series of films has surpassed the Shrek movies to become the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time worldwide. A $21.2M international weekend on Despicable Me 3 has pushed the franchise to a $3.528B global total for Gru and the Minions. That tops the Shrek stable of five pics…

TUESDAY AM UPDATE: With actuals accounted for, there were few swings at the international box office in what was a weekend rife with holdovers — and one massive Chinese newcomer. Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk led for Hollywood at a slightly higher $45.8M versus Sunday's $45.6M estimate. Despicable Me 3, the No. 2 studio…

Charged by the successes of The Fate Of The Furious and Illumination powerhouse Despicable Me 3, Universal Pictures has just crossed the $4 billion mark at the worldwide box office for the second time in the studio's 105-year history. Univeral reports that this is also “the fastest a studio has reached this milestone…