German Box Office: ‘Minions’ Rule Over ‘Magic Mike XXL,’ ‘Ant-Man’

Universal Pictures’ Minions continues to rule over the German box office, fighting off competition from new entries including Magic Mike XXL and Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man to hold on to the top spot for the fourth weekend running.

With a $5.1 million (€4.6 million) weekend take and 535,000 tickets sold this past weekend, Minions also blasted past Furious 7 and Fifty Shades of Grey to become the most watched film of the year to-date in Germany. Its attendance had reached 4.42 million. That already tops the performance of Despicable Me 2, which sold 3.7 million tickets in Germany. Revenue-wise, Minions‘ performance roughly translates to a box-office take of $42 million so far.

Related Stories

Related Story

'Minions': Film Review

Magic Mike XXL took the second place in this weekend’s box-office race, but its $2 million (€1.8 million) take, with 205,000 tickets sold, was less than half that of Minions in the territory. But that marked a major jump compared to the original Magic Mike film, which earned around $700,000 from just 75,000 viewers on its opening weekend back in 2012. The sequel is all but certain to dance past Magic Mike‘s total in Germany, where the film hit around $2.5 million

Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man, however, has a taller hill to climb. The superhero feature, starring Paul Rudd, opened to glowing reviews, but  disappointing box-office revenue of just $1.7 million (€1.5 million). Buena Vista, which is handling the release, will have to count on strong word-of-mouth to keep Ant-Man from being buried.

Somebody That Good”” image=”2400291″ excerpt=”“I was really rocked by the Christopher Reeves ‘Superman’ film, and I think there were a few weeks after that where I would kind of fly around my living room.””]

Further down the charts, indie films are leaving their mark on the German box office. Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad), an experimental film featuring several German YouTube stars, opened to a respectable $996,000 (€900,000) this past weekend, good enough for seventh place on the charts. On the other end of the thematic scale, Jafar Panahi‘s Iranian drama Taxi, winner of this year’s Berlinale Golden Bear, earned $250,000 (€225,000) on its opening weekend and squeezed into the German top 10. 

Another Berlinale winner, the Berlin-based thriller Victoria, continues to draw audiences. During its seventh weekend, the Sebastian Schipper-directed drama, which was done in a single, one-shot take, earned $133,000 (€120,000). Victoria has so far earned around $2 million in Germany for distributor Wild Bunch. 

Related Stories

Related Story

Box-Office Preview: 'Minions' Could Match 'Toy Story 3' With $110M U.S. Debut

Twitter: @sroxborough