'Despicable Me 3' and 'Baby Driver' win, 'The House' doesn't

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Minions are still a box office force and original stories are scoring big, but not the R-rated comedy — even with Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler behind it.

Studio estimates on Sunday say that Universal Pictures and Illumination's "Despicable Me 3" earned $75.4 million over the weekend, while the former Saturday Night Live stars' gambling comedy "The House" burned down.

While it's a far cry from "Minions'" $115 million launch in 2015, and also lower than "Despicable Me 2," which opened to $83.5 million in 2013, Nick Carpou, president of Domestic Theatrical Distribution for Universal Pictures, says that $75 million is a number he'll celebrate any day of the week.

Edgar Wright's original heist movie "Baby Driver" coasted to $30 million in its first five days in theaters, with $21 million from the three-day weekend to take second place.

Sony Pictures released the R-rated pic which stars Jamie Foxx, Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm and Kevin Spacey and cost a reported $34 million to produce.

"How great it is to see audiences turn out to support original filmmaking," said Josh Greenstein, Sony's president of worldwide marketing and distribution.

The R-rated film did well with critics and is one of a handful of original or independent films this weekend that are notable successes.

Perhaps this is the summer where Hollywood finally starts emulating the small screen model of creating compelling original content in order to generate goodwill with audiences who have more options than ever before.

Not so successful was suburban gambling comedy "The House" which landed in sixth place with only $9 million — one of the lowest of Ferrell's career and the latest in a string of R-rated comedies to tank at the box office following "Rough Night" and "Baywatch."

"The R-rated comedy used to be the antidote to the typical summer blockbuster and now those films are having a tough time," said Dergarabedian noting success stories like "The Hangover," ''Bridesmaids" and "Neighbors.

[...] the summer box office roller coaster may still have some surprises in store.

[...] we need more than one box office superhero, we need multiple films performing.

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.