The Despicable Me franchise has officially unseated Shrek to become the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time.
The news comes after this weekend when Despicable Me 3, which is also out in Irish cinemas, took in $21.2m internationally, giving the franchise a $3.528b global total.
Shrek’s accumulated takings amount to $3.51b. This includes all four Shrek movies and spin-off movie Puss in Boots. The Despicable Me franchise includes the trilogy of Despicable Me movies as well as their spin-off Minions, the latter of which is currently the second highest grossing animated movie of all time.
According to Deadline, the first Despicable Me film, released in 2010, earned $546m while its Oscar-nominated sequel from 2013 amassed $976m. Despicable Me 3 has worldwide takings of $879.5m so far (the film has yet to open in Italy, Greece and Turkey).
The news could provoke some movement on the highly rumoured Shrek 5 film, but the franchise will still face stiff competition from Minions 2, which is due for release in 2020…
