Despicable Me 2 Leads Eight Movies With Over $10 Million This Weekend

You want to know how you set a record for the Fourth of July weekend at the box office? Well, having a broad base of successful films is a good start. Of course, "successful" might be a bit much for The Lone Ranger, which has underperformed by more than $15 million off its expected five-day target, but that's a whole other conversation. In any event, Despicable Me 2 brought in a huge $82.5 million for the weekend and $293 million worldwide for the five days since its release, while The Lone Ranger, The Heat, Monsters University, World War Z, White House Down, Man of Steel and Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain all topped $10 million to generate an additional $127.1 million domestically for the three-day weekend. While Monsters University probably won't have a sequel anytime soon (Pixar has recently re-committed to doing original films instead), Despicable Me 2's next installment, a prequel film featuring Gru's Minions, is set to debut in 2014 starring Sandra Bullock. The Heat has already reportedly got a script in the works for a second installment, which means Bullock will be tied up there, too, and may not get any non-sequels right away. World War Z has already got a sequel greenlit and all signs point to Man of Steel's next installment being announced at Comic-Con in two weeks.