Many Israelis throughout the country, mostly teenagers, were raving, singing and throwing popcorn at movie theater screenings of Minions 2: The Rise of Gru, which quickly became a trend on social media after several TikToks that captured these incidences went viral.
Other acts that the rioting teenagers did was damage chairs and disturbed the rest of the audience at the cinemas. In some cases, the cinemas even had security escort the rioting teenagers outside the movie house. Songs that the teenagers were singing, or just yelling, included "Hatikva" and "Echad Mi Yodea."
This disappointed the tens of thousands of parents and children who came to hundreds of screenings in cinemas around the country — which showed both the Hebrew dubbed version and the original English version with Hebrew subtitles.
משו משו מיניונים משו בננה pic.twitter.com/T6dP1kYrG5
— Adi Stroianu (@AStroianu) June 30, 2022
אי אפשר לראןת סרט
♬ original sound - Niv dagan
This unusual behavior around the screening of Minions originated as a TikTok trend in the United States that trickled its way to Israel, where audiences showed up to the movie house all dressed in suits.
@itamarrevivo 300% משכורת היום לכל מי שעובד בקולנוע #theboys #gru #מיניונים #fyp ♬ original sound - itamarrevivo
Despite the mess, a financial success
Despite these incidences, Minions 2 has been a box office success in Israel, with 100,000 people having viewed the film in its first weekend — reportedly the highest opening number ever for an animated feature film in the country. The film's worldwide release had initially been postponed by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.