Yahoo Finance Teens in Suits Flock to Record-Breaking Minions: The Rise of Gru Because of Viral TikTok
Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures
#Gentleminions, start your engines!
What began as a trend on TikTok that went viral last week — large groups of teenagers wearing formal attire to watch Minions: The Rise of Gru — has helped push the movie to a best-ever Independence Day weekend opening for a movie.
RELATED: Minions: Rise of Gru Smashes Fourth of July Box Office Record with $125M Opening
An Australian teenager was one of the first to capitalize on the bizarre social media trend, according to Variety. Bill Hirst of Sydney posted a video of his #Gentleminion friends that received more than 8.5 million views over the past week, the outlet reported.
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"My mate saw one of the first videos that was quite small at the time. We wanted to do it just for fun," Hirst told Variety. "We just chucked on our suits and went straight to the cinemas…It was very spontaneous. We had our formal literally a couple days before that. We had all had our suits ready."
Gentleminion audience members often cheer loudly and copy Gru's iconic steepled hand motions throughout the movie — sometimes to the distraction of other theater-goers.
All of which has some movie theaters around the globe unprepared for the throng of teens who have shown up en masse to see the prequel, in which Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) is a 12-year-old boy growing up in the 1970s.
In the U.S., the Illumination and Universal hit made $125.1M over the weekend, earning an Independence Day 4-day opening record according to Deadline.
RELATED: Steve Carell Says His Adult Children Jumped at the Chance to Attend Minions Premiere
The movie also features the voices of Pierre Coffin (the Minions), Julie Andrews as Gru's mother, and Alan Arkin as Wild Knuckles, a mentor of sorts to Gru. Taraji P. Henson, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, Russell Brand and Michelle Yeoh round out the cast of the animated movie.
Illumination Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
In the UK, some theaters have had to enforce dress code restrictions, with one independent location in Wadebridge, Cornwall, banning unaccompanied children wearing suits from watching the film, according to Sky News in Britain.
zoomers are throwing bananas at the screen during screenings of minions rise of gru and getting entire theaters shut down pic.twitter.com/LxHULD9Sjh
— cold 🥑 (@coldhealing) July 1, 2022
In a statement posted on Twitter before being deleted, The Regal wrote: "We are currently not admitting unaccompanied children wearing suits for 'Minions: The Rise Of Gru,'" according to the news outlet.
Meanwhile, on July 1, Universal Pictures took to the platform to show its support for teenagers 'round the world.
to everyone showing up to @Minions in suits: we see you and we love you. 🫶
— Universal Pictures (@UniversalPics) July 1, 2022
"To everyone showing up to @Minions in suits: we see you and we love you," the company tweeted.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is now playing in theaters.
