--- title: Minions Hits Big in China Box Office description: Most successful opening ever for an animated movie canonical: https://time.com/4032954/minions-box-office-china/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-13T21:17:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:54:05.520Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Minions' Take China's Box Office By Storm og:description: Most successful opening ever for an animated movie og:url: https://time.com/4032954/minions-box-office-china/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4296431be9786555/69885a86e53abaf7054de90f/minions1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: minions og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Minions' Take China's Box Office By Storm twitter:description: Most successful opening ever for an animated movie twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4296431be9786555/69885a86e53abaf7054de90f/minions1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Minions_ Take China's Box Office By Storm by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Sep 13, 2015 9:17 PM UTC  In this image released by Universal Pictures, various minion characters appear in a scene from the animated feature, "Minions." (Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures via AP) In this image released by Universal Pictures, various minion characters appear in a scene from the animated feature, "Minions." (Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures via AP)Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment/AP by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Sep 13, 2015 9:17 PM UTC _Minions_ opened in China over the weekend, and its box office debut was, well, bananas. Opening to an estimated $20.1 million, _Minions_ earned the biggest opening day for an animated film ever in China. As a result, its box office total is now at $1.08 billion worldwide, making _Minions_ the 15th biggest film ever (not accounting for inflation). Not only that, but it’s officially surpassed _Toy Story 3_ to become the second-highest grossing animated film of all time. _Frozen,_ which has made $1.27 billion globally, is the current record-holder for the biggest animated movie ever. After debuting in July, _Minions_ earned the second biggest opening for an animated movie, bringing in $115.7 million domestically and falling just short of _Shrek the Third_’s $121.6 million. To date, _Minions_ has made more than $331 million domestically. _Minions_ is just one more hit in a string of successes for Universal, which has had a banner year at the box office thanks to _Jurassic World, Furious 7_, _Pitch Perfect 2_, _Fifty Shades of Grey,_ and _Straight Outta Compton_. Back in August, the studio officially crossed $5.53 billion at the global box office, setting the record for the highest-grossing year ever for a movie studio. This [article](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/13/minions-second-biggest-animated-movie-ever) originally appeared at [EW.com](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4032954/minions-box-office-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4032954/minions-box-office-china/"},"headline":"Minions Take China's Box Office By Storm","datePublished":"2015-09-13T21:17:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:54:05.520Z","description":"Most successful opening ever for an animated movie","url":"https://time.com/4032954/minions-box-office-china/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4296431be9786555/69885a86e53abaf7054de90f/minions1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4296431be9786555/69885a86e53abaf7054de90f/minions1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"minions","caption":"minions","creditText":"Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4032954/minions-box-office-china/","name":"Minions Take China's Box Office By Storm"}}]}] ```