This weekend, “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” the newest film in the Despicable Me series, broke box office records. According to CNN Business, the movie’s expected $125 million domestic gross set a record for the Fourth of July weekend’s highest opening.
While little children have enjoyed the yellow animals wearing blue overalls and goggles, teens wearing suits have shown up in large numbers to see the movie this weekend.
Large groups of well-dressed teenagers have recorded themselves attending screenings of the film, cheering heartily as it starts, and posting the footage to TikTok during what many online have nicknamed the #Gentleminions craze.
Last week, a group of teenagers from Australia uploaded a video to the internet in which they did just that. More than 35 million people have watched it since then.
A pioneer of this practice, which is being followed on TikTok and Twitter with the hashtag #Gentleminions, spoke Variety. Bill Hirst is from Sydney, Australia, and two weeks after The Rise Of Gru premiered there, he filmed a TikTok video of himself and a group of friends entering the cinema in suits, shaking hands, sitting quietly while waiting for the film to start, and stoically filing out after the film’s credits.
Since his class had “had our formal literally a couple days before that,” they were fully prepared to get dressed up, according to Hirst, who claims that one of his pals had seen another video of the trend when it was still just getting started and wanted to go “do it just for the fun.”
Hirst’s group of 15 were met at the theater by another eight guys acting similarly, as seems to always happen whenever people go to the movies.
One such example is a Maryland teenager by the name of Obie who, like Hirst, had watched a video of the trend and participated in it with some pals before coming across another group who had also worn movie-themed attire. Both TikTok and Twitter posted accounts of their tragic encounter.
@minions Bobspeed you gentleminions. 🤵 #Minions #TheRiseOfGru only in theaters now. #gentleminions #gentlemen #riseofgru #mintok
@ig.jj_masarati8 Minions rise of alphas #gentleminions
Some of the viral videos show those taking part cheering and clapping loudly and being disruptive during screenings, leading to some UK cinemas to enforce dress code restrictions.
One independent cinema in Wadebridge, Cornwall, has banned any unaccompanied children who are wearing suits from watching the film.
In a statement posted on Twitter, The Regal wrote: “We are currently not admitting unaccompanied children wearing suits for ‘Minions: The Rise Of Gru’. This is due to the issues we have encountered over the last two days and its associated behavior.
These sizable gatherings of Gentleminions have prompted conflicting responses from theater owners. Their attendance at The Rise Of Gru screenings in the UK has been so disruptive that ticket sales have been curtailed by managers.
Theaters have so far, at least in North America, been more than fine with the marketing boost. (Universal Pictures, for its part, tweeted in the first person using all lowercase letters, “We see you and we love you.”
