There’s no stopping the Despicable Me franchise at the box office.
Following Despicable Me 4’s unsurprisingly big debut over the July 4th weekend, Universal and Illumination have officially announced Minions 3, giving it a June 30, 2027, release date (via Variety). That puts it on the Wednesday before Independence Day, which falls on a Sunday in 2027.
Franchise veteran Pierre Coffin, a director on the first three Despicable Me movies and the first Minions film, will direct from a script by Minions and The Secret Life of Pets writer Brian Lynch.
Clearly, the summer holiday period is working for the series. Despicable Me 4 debuted to a whopping $230 million globally this past weekend – enough to surpass Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2, which continues to be a box office behemoth in its own right.
But Despicable Me 4 is only the latest success in what’s proven to be a wildly reliable franchise for Universal and Illumination. The first Despicable Me debuted in 2010, introducing the supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell) and his band of Minions, spawning three direct sequels and two Minions spinoffs.
Despite mixed reviews, each of those films has been profitable, making Despicable Me the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time (followed by Shrek, which also just announced a sequel). The most recent Minions spinoff, 2022’s The Rise of Gru, nearly hit the coveted $1 billion mark at the global box office.
IGN gave Despicable me 4 a 5/10, although reviewer Siddhant Adlaka praised the Minions’ arc in particular, writing, “The only thing that makes sense in Despicable Me 4 is the babbling Minions, who get their own Avengers-style subplot.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
