Thread by @tclarkmedia

$202,000,000

8,200,000,000 views on TikTok

Minions: The Rise of Gru has taken over the box office by taking over social media

Here's the fascinating (and hilarious) story of how it happened:

TikTok is an insane platform

Already in 2022, we've seen the platform *significantly* influence movie performance

Both positively... and negatively 😬

Top Gun had a great run on the platform

With countless guys shaving their beards into a mustache

And clips of Miles Teller dancing on the beach circulating on the FYP

The movie's marketing dept. did a great job capturing the attention of a younger audience

On the flip side...

Morbius became the laughing stock of the internet for a few weeks...

After flopping when it first dropped, the move became a literally meme (see below)

Somehow, the internet convinced Sony to re-release it

And guess what?

It flopped - again 🤣

Now, we get to Minions...

This is unlike anything I've ever seen before

As of writing this, the #minions tag on TikTok has over 8.2B views

Videos of people pulling up to the theater in suits have taken over my FYP

The memes have transcended platforms - Twitter, TikTok, etc...

It's madness

So...

What got us here?

Let's break it down, step-by-step

Buckle up, it gets weird... fast

👇

And let me be clear, TikTok wasn't the *only* marketing channel that helped Minions crush box office records

The brand partnerships they've rolled out (lots of them) have been great

Here's an interesting breakdown on that:

The TikTok insanity began ~6 days ago

(Well, it *started* on YouTube)

Crazy part is that it appears to have been perfectly orchestrated

It all started when this song dropped on Lyrical Lemonade

It's by Yeat feat. the Minions (yes, really)

The song naturally made it's way over to TikTok when the official @minions account posted this video

If we look a little deeper, we'll see that this song had *perfect* viral potential on TikTok

Here's what I mean...

@Minions 1 - The sound itself is a pattern interrupt

Makes you stop scrolling (like wtf, did I hear Minions on a Yeat track?)

2 - Catchy and repetitive enough to get stuck in your head

You know, kinda like the "my money don't jiggle jiggle, it folds" sound

Then, this happened...

@Minions This creator posted a TikTok of a group of 20+ guys pulling up to the theater in full suits

With the Yeat song as the sound

The OG video went ultra-viral (35M views), and @HoHighlights reposted to their page

And thus... a trend was born 🚀

@Minions @HoHighlights Since that video, there have been countless others posted

And the stunts get crazier...

One group snuck 200lbs of bananas into the theater 🍌

Several got the cops & fire dept. called on them for being too wild

Generally though, the trend has stayed wholesome

@Minions @HoHighlights Major creators/influencers have also hopped in on the trend

Here's an example of a video from @MrBeast renting out an entire theater to watch Minions

The video got ~6M views and generated 15K+ comments

Wild engagement

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast By the numbers:

- the Rich Minion sound has been used 136.1K times
- the #minions hashtag has 8.0B+ views

Now, for part 2... keep reading 👇

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast The Minion Cult

Yes. Cult.

Here's an explainer (that has 3.3M views):

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast Minion cult PFPs (see below) have overrun the FYP and the comments section on TikTok

So the movie basically has an army of of millions of engaged accounts promoting the movie across the platform

Some bigger accounts have 'joined' the cult, too

Wild

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast Transcending Platforms

The memes aren't unique to TikTok

The conversation about the movie has taken over Twitter, too

Some are NSFW so I'll let you do the digging there (just search 'minions')...

But here's one example of a minion-related trend that took over Twitter:

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast Now, the question...

How and why did this all happen?

There's been some speculation that the some influencers & meme pages were paid to post

It makes sense - they literally manufactured a viral sound, perhaps influencer deals gave it the spark needed to get the trend going

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast Also, the original suit video was the first and only video on the account that posted it

And it popped off to 35M?

HoH reposted?

Massive creators/brands joined the 'minion cult?'

Is is possible that all happened organically?

On TikTok, sure

But you gotta think...

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast And we've seen this before with meme pages on other platforms

Products have used meme pages on IG to advertise for years now

Movies have partnered with influencers for promotion for ages

Minions may have just done it in a new, TikTok-native way

If that's true, it's genius 🤯

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast The marketing team set the foundation for a mass wave of UGC:

- Manufactured a sound w/ viral potential
- (Maybe) partnered with influencers to spark hype?

And the community ran with it to make it a viral hit

One doesn't happen without the other, IMO

Oh, and of course...

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast The branded content from the @minions account is top tier across all platforms:

- TikTok
- Twitter
- IG

On TikTok specifically, the team is also super active in the comments of community posts... getting even more visibility for the movie

Bravo 👏

Now, one more question...

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast Minions VS Morbius

Why did one soar and one flop?

Well...

You know the difference between when someone's laughing with you and laughing at you?

In my opinion, that's why

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast People meme'd Morbius because it wasn't a good movie

(laughing AT it)

People meme'd Minions because it was wholesome, nostalgic, and generally fun to watch

(laughing WITH it)

And of course, I'm sure there's some random chance in there too 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast Now excuse me, I'm off to watch this cinematic masterpiece in theaters

And if you enjoyed that, I write threads on social media strategy 1-2x per week

Follow @tclarkmedia to read them

@Minions @HoHighlights @MrBeast I also write a twice weekly newsletter, Social Files, that helps you grow on social media with practical, proven strategies

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