Summary
Despicable Me 4has pushed the animated franchise past a huge global milestone. The movie is the fourth installment in the flagship Illumination franchise, which follows the adventures of reformed supervillain Gru and his family, in addition to being the sixth installment overall including the two movies in theMinionsspinoff subfranchise. TheDespicable Me 4releasehad an auspicious debut over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, grossing a whopping $122.6 million at the domestic box office during its first five days after opening midweek.
PerDeadline, theDespicable Me 4box office is projected to add another $136 million to its worldwide total by the end of its second weekend in theaters. However, the movie’s Friday numbers alone havepushed the overall franchise’s worldwide gross to a total of $5.025 billion. Although it was already the No. 1 animated movie franchise in history, it has now become the first such franchise to ever cross the $5 billion milestone.
What Will Be The Next Animated Franchise To Pass $5 Billion After Despicable Me?
Several Major Series Are Waiting In The Wings
It is not necessarily a surprise that theDespicable Mefranchisewas the first to cross this major milestone. Even though it’s a more contemporary franchise that kicked off in 2010 and only has six installments, two of them (MinionsandDespicable Me 3) have already passed the $1 billion mark while an additional two (Minions: The Rise of GruandDespicable Me 2) grossed more than $900 million apiece. However, there areseveral other franchises potentially poised to cross the $5 billion milestonesoon. Below, see the current Top 5 highest-grossing animated movie franchises of all time:
6
$5.025 billion
$4.03 billion
5
$3.27 billion
$3.21 billion
2
$2.73 billion
Each of the other competing franchises in the Top 5 has a new sequel in development, withToy Story 5,Shrek 5, andFrozen IIIdue in 2026 and an upcomingIce Agemovie teased on a Disney promotional website in 2022. While theupcomingMinions 3will likely end up pushing the franchise even further, potentially crossing the $6 billion mark, all four franchises are making bids to follow the Illumination franchise past the $5 billion milestone soon. The most likely to do so next is theShrekfranchise, which has less than a billion to go.
However, it remains to be seen if any animated franchise ever manages to surpass theDespicable Memovies. While no further installments in the flagship franchise have been officially announced followingDespicable Me 4, the movies have been coming at a relatively steady clip over the past 10-plus years. Given the success of this sixth installment and the likely success ofMinions 3, it seems highly unlikely that the franchise will be slowing down any time soon.
Despicable Me 4
Cast
The infamous (and kind-hearted) not-super villain Gru returns in Despicable Me 4, the fourth entry in the long-running movie series from Illumination Entertainment. The fourth film also sees the return of Gru’s wife, Lucy, portrayed again by Kristin Wiig, and introduces their son.
