Summary
TheDespicable Me 4box office total continues to climb to impressive heights, but how well it has performed is not as remarkable considering the franchise’s history. Illumination’s hit animated franchise began in 2010 with a breakout success, resulting in sixDespicable Memoviesbeing made at the time ofDespicable Me 4’s release. The expansion with twoMinionsprequels helped make the series even bigger than before. That meant increased expectations of whatDespicable Me 4’s box office performance could hold if the sequel were as big as some of the other installments.
When I did the site’spredictions for the highest grossing movies of 2024at the beginning of the year,Despicable Me 4was projected to be at the top. The franchise’s strength over the last 14 years indicated that interest in Gru and the Minions was as big as ever before. To date,Despicable Me 4has made $577 million worldwide, which is an incredibly impressive total. How that stacks up against the year’s other biggest releases is excellent. The only issue is that theDespicable Mefranchise has greater box office expectations than whatDespicable Me 4can achieve.
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Despicable Me 4’s Box Office Is A Massive Success
It’s The Third Biggest Movie Of The Year
Almost any other movie released in 2024 would be lucky to haveDespicable Me 4’s current box office total. With it guaranteed to eclipse the $600 million mark and even go beyond that, the movie is a bonafide success.OnlyInside Out 2andDune: Part Twomade more at the box officethan whatDespicable Me 4has made so far. There is no realm where it catchesInside Out 2at this point, but it very well could make up the $150 million difference between it andDune 2.
There is no debate at this point thatDespicable Me 4was a successful movie for Illumination. It topped high-profile releases likeKingdom of the Planet of the Apes,Kung Fu Panda 4,Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,Bad Boys: Ride or Die, andGodzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The film reportedly only has a budget of $100 million, according toVariety. With a box office total nearly six times the production cost,Despicable Me 4is a massively profitable releasefor the studio - and that’s before factoring in merchandise or any other additional income.
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Despicable Me’s Franchise Box Office Makes Despicable Me 4’s Performance Look Worse
It’s The Franchise’s Second Lowest Grossing Film
The problem forDespicable Me 4is that the other movies in the franchise almost all did substantially better.Despicable Me 4has only beaten the originalDespicable Me’s box officeof $543.2 million worldwide. Every otherDespicable MeandMinionsmoviefinished with totals of over $940 million. That is why there was a very real expectation that the sequel would surpass the $1 billion milestone, joiningDespicable Me 3andMinionsas the franchise installments to do so.
Despicable Me (2010)
$543.2 Million
There is now a genuinely strong chance thatDespicable Me 4will go down as one of the franchise’s lowest grossing entries by a wide margin. It needs to make up over $360 million just to crack the $900 million barrier that every other entry besides the first did. It alsowill likely finish its theatrical run below the franchise’s average box office total of $871 million.Despicable Me 4will still be very successful monetarily regardless of where it finishes in the $600-$800 million range. But that is weaker for the franchise than you would expect.
Despicable Me 4’s Box Office Makes Minions 3 A Bigger Risk
Minions 3 Was Announced After Despicable Me 4
The outlook ofDespicable Me 4’s box office is more intriguing to consider since Illumination has already confirmed plans for the franchise to go on. In the aftermath of the film’s release, the studio confirmed thatMinions 3is in developmentand coming out in 2027. This tells us all we need to know about what Illumination thinks ofDespicable Me 4’s performance and the franchise’s future. They areconfident enough to move forward with another movie in the universe, and rightfully so after making a great profit off the sequel.
Yet, there is still some risk involved withMinions 3now. The franchise has now experienced a rather sizable drop between howDespicable Me 3andDespicable Me 4performed.Minions: The Rise of Grualready made over $200 million less than the originalMinions, so there is a chance that the third installment could have a significant drop, similar to the universe’s last two sequels. IfMinions 3makes $700 million at the box office, it should still be a successful film. Still, Illumination will surely be hoping it will have a total much higher thanDespicable Me 4.
