Fully Grown Lads In Suits Are Starting Mosh Pits During ‘Minions: The Rise Of Gru’
#GentleMinions are swarming the children's film.
The boys are rallying together and suiting up to catch Minions: The Rise of Gru, for another film-turned-meme phenomenon.
In a viral trend supporting the new release, hordes of teenagers are congregating at their local cinema to support the self-proclaimed high art masterpiece, sometimes just civilly clapping at the end, and in other instances, releasing their inner minion by slamdancing in front of the projector.
It’s all part of a reclaiming of the Despicable Me franchise by Gen Z on TikTok and Twitter — unintentionally feeding into Universal Pictures’ marketing machine, with the payoff of some meaty views for willing participants.
Streets turned us despicable but our money still gru pic.twitter.com/YekGa9PV7x
— BL⭐️CK (@rageriders) July 2, 2022
‘Minions: The Rise Of Gru’
The 2022 animated movie is the fifth instalment in the Minions universe, and second prequel dedicated to the Twisties-looking monsters. As the name dutifully suggests, The Rise of Gru follows … well, the rise of Gru — a bald anti-hero formerly known as the world’s #1 villain.
The spin-off follows 11-year-old Gru as a he starts out his mischievous career — backed by infamous minion trio Kevin, Stuart, and Bob — and gets into all sorts of trouble along the way. No spoilers here!
Minions: The Rise of Gru also boasts an impressive soundtrack, somehow managing to pull in a Diana Ross and Tame Impala collab, Thundercut, Caroline Polachek, Phoebe Bridgers, Kali Uchis, and resuscitate Brockhampton from their flop era.
Reviews of the film have been predictably mixed — the Guardian hailed the yellow fiends for delivering “a concentrated hit of irrepressible goofball nonsense” in its four-out-of-five star rating, but another review on the same site described it as being on its last legs, begging for the franchise to be put out of its misery and finally “laid to rest”.
The Gen Z Effect
Young people love to help the economy the best way they know how during these rough times — by turning an objectively shitty film into a commercial success story as a bit.
The new minions-verse flick has already wracked in over $100 million in the box office over the weekend, and is expected to overtake Transformers: Dark of the Moon for highest opening over Independence Day this Monday in the States — all thanks to Gen Z.
buying her tickets to see the Rise of Gru because she is one in a minion
— Joseph Barron (@the_joe_barron) June 28, 2022
Two trends have emerged from The Rise of Gru: the first, a simple reaction picture, depicting the squad pulling up to buy tickets to the film, with similar formats dedicated to the upcoming Barbie romcom, and superhero flick Morbius. The second is known as the #GentleMinions movement, and is rewriting the expected target audience for the literal children’s movie.
Suit Up
GentleMinions — a play on ‘gentlemen’ — has taken off in the last fortnight, since The Rise of Gru was released in late June. Take this one example shot in Sydney’s Westfield Chatswood, which has accrued over 8.5 million likes on TikTok in less than a week.
The international droves of dapper lads have been lapped up by Universal, who shared in a tweet on Saturday that “everyone showing up to Minions in suits: we see you and we love you”. Less can be said about the local cinemas actually having to deal with the crowds, with accounts of police reportedly having to shut down some screenings for getting out of hand.
Society is crumbling. pic.twitter.com/kcBdERx3n3
— Big Anthony (Awoogah Thighs) (@theneedledrop) July 3, 2022
Is it fair on theatre employees already having to deal with the onslaught of foot traffic during school holidays? Definitely not. Is it probably going to continue until the next memeification opportunity takes its reigns online? Likely so.