Box Office Report: 'Despicable Me 2' Crushes 'Lone Ranger' on Tuesday Night

Universal Pictures

"Despicable Me 2"

UPDATED: Universal's 3D animated event pic grosses $4.7 million, compared to $2 million for Disney's big-budget action-adventure.

Universal's Despicable Me 2 left The Lone Ranger in the dust on Tuesday night as both films opened at the North American box office on the eve of the long July 4th holiday stretch.

The 3D animated event pic grossed a stellar $4.7 million from 2,563 theaters, while Disney's big-gamble Western -- headlining Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer -- took in $2 million.
Despicable Me 2 cost a modest $76 million to produce, while Lone Ranger cost at least $250 million. Director Gore Verbinski and Depp reunited with their Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer to bring Lone Ranger to the big screen.
Based on pre-release tracking, Despicable Me 2 is projected to earn $110 million by Sunday (Universal is projecting a more conservative $100 million-plus), while Lone Ranger is tipped to earn in the $65 million to $70 million range. That's an OK start, but Lone Ranger will need to have strong legs and do especially big business overseas just to break even.
With Lone Ranger, Disney is hoping to whip up the same magic that Bruckheimer, Verbinski and Depp created with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In this latest film, Depp applies his penchant for playing quirky characters to the role of Tonto (Depp says he is part Native American), while Hammer plays the Lone Ranger.
Hollywood will be be paying close attention to Lone Ranger's performance, considering its cost (at one point, it was almost scrapped entirely). This past weekend, Sony's big-budget action tentpole White House Down, which cost $150 million to produce, flopped in its North America debut, grossing just $24.9 million.

Despicable 2 is something of a sure bet, considering it's a sequel to a family hit. The toon opens three years after the first film took the box office by storm. The films are the brainchild of Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment, the animation venture backed by Universal.
Overseas, Despicable 2 has already earned an outstanding $48 million from only seven territories, including six where it opened over the weekend after initially rolling out in Australia the prior weekend.
In the toon, Steve Carell returns to voice the role of Gru, master of the minions, while Kristen Wiig voices the role of Agent Lucy Wilde. will open in more than 800 theaters nationwide.
Summit Entertainment enters the holiday fray with stand-up comedy film Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, which likewise rolled out Tuesday night, grossing a solid $1.1 million from only 876 theaters. Summit is hoping to provide counter-programming for African-American audiences as well as comedy fans. The film, from Codeblack Films and HartBeat Productions,was filmed live at New York's Madison Square Garden.