Supervillain Gru and his yellow minions have more reasons to celebrate as Despicable Me 2 topped the weekend box office in North America for its Independence Day holiday release.

Despicable Me 2 earned a whopping $142.1 million in North America and 151.1 million in global ticket sales, according to Box Office.

In Australia, Universal's latest blockbuster animation earned an impressive $20.8 million in its opening week last month.

Meanwhile, The Lone Ranger falls to second place with only $48.9 million, a very big disappointment for Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski. The Disney adventure film, with a studio budget of $225 million, has current global sales of $73.2 million.

"It obviously didn't connect with audiences, and it's frustrating for us. We felt we had everything in place for it to succeed," Walt Disney's vice president for distribution, Dave Hollis, said.

Hollis still hopes that the film might still be profitable with the international openings that are still to come.

Looks like Johnny Depp's Hollywood star power didn't help the film to fare better with moviegoers. "Everything was just not going in its favor." Hollywood.com's box office analyst, Paul Dergarabedian, said.

RELATED STORIES