'Despicable Me 2' Crushes 'The Lone Ranger' At 4th of July Box Office

July 4th always features a number of blockbuster film releases, pitting huge budgeted movies against each other in a competition for the attention of holiday weekend viewers. In a battle between the two biggest films released Wednesday night, "Despicable Me 2" easily dominated "The Lone Ranger." 

The animated film, which features to voice of Steve Carell, made $34.3 million on its opening night. "The Lone Ranger" made only $9.7 million despite starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer. Experts predict that "Despicable Me 2" will wrap up the the 5-day weekend with box office earnings totaling $140 million dollars. "Lone Ranger" is only expected to earn $45-50 million over the weekend. 

The totals are especially disappointing for Disney, which produced "Lone Ranger." The company sank $225 millions into the film, and all indications suggest that Disney won't break even with the film. Universal spent $70 million on "Despicable Me 2," still a considerable sum, but it looks like the studio will double its money in only the first weekend. The film is on good pace to pass "Monsters University" for the highest-earning animated film of the year. "Monsters" had held down the top spot at the box office for the previous two weekends.

The performances of both films were probably influenced by their respective reviews. "Despicable Me 2" scored an "A-" on review aggregator CinemaScore.com, whereas "The Lone Ranger" was generally panned.