We live in times when box office winners are supposed to be big, strong and larger than life. But a week after the small yellow gibberish-spouting creatures of Minions dominated charts in the U.S. and abroad, Ant-Man, a second tier character out of the Marvel stable with the ability to shrink to the size of a tiny ant as he grows in strength, has become the new box office hero. In its first week of release, Ant-Man grossed $58 million domestically and pretty much the same amount out of 37 territories, for a global cumulative of $115 million. Standouts are UK with $6 million and the new unusual suspect, Mexico, with $5.6 million. We are not in The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy league here, but this is not such a bad outcome for a production that took almost ten years to get to the screen and went through three directors (Payton Reed finally took the helm) and as many screenwriters. Ant-Man also represents a personal victory for Paul Rudd, who in the title character’s role managed to give the film a comedic and family friendly tone. The picture is a commercial triumph for Michael Douglas as well – Ant-Man is the highest grossing debut of his long and distinguished career.
 
Although Ant-Man was the clear winner, saving Marvel’s honor and becoming the studio’s twelfth consecutive title to open at number one, Minions held its turf pretty well: the animated spinoff of Despicable Me added $50.2 million this weekend and its ten-day total stands at $217 million. Internationally, Minions keeps doing strong business, beating Ant-Man and adding $66 million for a total in the $400 million neighborhood. 
That’s pretty good, but only for a second place, because the title of international winner went to Monster Hunt, with $72 million. Yes, Monster Hunt: a movie you may never have heard of before because it is a family fantasy adventure made in China. Directed by Raman Hui – who is credited for working on Shrek – Monster Hunt was followed by Pancake Man, a superhero spinoff-featuring a cameo from Jean-Claude Van Damme that generated $61 million. Back to North America, the moral winner – and certainly the real surprise of the weekend, even though it opened in third place – was Trainwreck. Starring Amy Schumer (who also wrote the script) in the role of a woman who does not accept monogamy and has to re-evaluate her certainties when she meets Bill Hader. Trainwreck was expected to have a $20 million debut. With the help of a surprisingly funny LeBron James, the comedy went past the $30 million mark in domestic tickets, a triumph for Schumer on her first movie. A big coup also for director/producer Judd Apatow, who has not witnessed those kind of numbers since the Knocked Up days.
 
The fourth spot went Pixar’s Inside Out, which took an additional $11.6 million to sail past $300 million in the domestic box office. Inside Out is close to passing the half a billion mark internationally, with major markets such as China, the UK, Germany and Italy still to come.  
Jurassic World rounded the top 5, adding $11.3 million for a domestic box office total of $611 million. With the addition of international receipts the new edition in the dino franchise has reached a total of $1.513 billion, passed the gross generated by Furious 7, becoming the sixth highest grossing movie of all time.
 
At the specialty box office, Mr. Holmes, starring the always excellent Ian McKellen as an aging Sherlock Holmes, opened to $2.4 million from 363 locations. Woody Allen’s Irrational Man, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Parker Posey was panned by critics for being repetitious and predictable, but nonetheless enjoyed a very high screen average of $37,000 dollars from a mere five theaters.
Lorenzo Soria