Reader, I have never seen a Minions movie. But that has never stopped me from delighting in the myriad joys of its babbling Twinkie-shaped underlings or Vector’s orange tracksuit. One of the franchise’s charms is its ability to transcend language and culture, to unite us as one Gru-tiful family. And this weekend, thanks to us, it’s doing it to the tune of $129M.
That’s right, Minions: The Rise of Gru is projected to make more than $129M, a new Fourth of July weekend box office record.
How did we get here? Well, the Minions marketing team has been hard at work, but Gen Z works harder. Through a series of Twitter and TikTok posts, they’ve boosted the visibility of the film and transformed it from a movie to a living meme. We broke down the most popular ones for you below, because one thing’s for sure:
The soundtrack
Back in May, Jack Antonoff announced that he had produced the soundtrack of the movie, featuring covers of 70’s hits from Diana Ross, Brockhampton, Kali Uchis, Phoebe Bridgers, Jackson Wang, Thundercat and more. That set the movie promotions off on the right foot, because who doesn’t want to listen to Phoebe and think about silly little minions all day??
The tickets
Fans have borrowed the “Tickets to X, please” meme that gained popularity after the release of The Joker and added a minion spin. Movie-goers and their memes have donned suits for reasons including: as a tongue-in-cheek sign of respect for the franchise, to joke that being a fan of a kid’s film is mature and attractive, and to revel in the irony of wearing a straight-up suit to a children’s movie.
The suits
The suit phenomenon has become an IRL meme, with large groups attending showings of the movie in suits.
Everything else
Just as the Minion franchise escapes categorization — is it a film for children or adults? Gen Z or geriatrics? — so do its memes. The posts below capture the diversity of content that the internet has delivered to us this weekend, in all its glory.