'Minions' finds 'Despicable Me' protagonist Gru's helpers taking center stage
The film 'Minions,' which features the voice work of Pierre Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, and others, opens in theaters today. How will it perform against such competition as Pixar's 'Inside Out'?
The film 'Minions,' which features the voice work of Pierre Coffin, Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, and others, opens in theaters today. How will it perform against such competition as Pixar's 'Inside Out'?
The film 鈥淢inions,鈥� which is based on the breakout characters from the 鈥淒espicable Me鈥� animated film series, hits theaters today.
鈥淢inions鈥� features the voices of Pierre Coffin, who also co-directs the film, as the minions, small yellow creatures who converse in gibberish and in the 鈥淒espicable鈥� films help wannabe villain Gru (Steve Carell) with his schemes. 鈥淢inions鈥� also stars Sandra Bullock as Scarlet Overkill, a villain whom the minions are assisting in this story. Jon Hamm, Allison Janney, Michael Keaton, and Steve Coogan co-star.
The film follows the box office success of 2010鈥檚 鈥淒espicable Me鈥� and the 2013 sequel 鈥淒espicable Me 2,鈥� the latter of which featured actress Kristen Wiig. Industry watchers are predicting a good performance for 鈥淢inions鈥� this weekend as well.聽
The success of the first two 鈥淒espicable鈥� films, which made 鈥淢inions鈥� possible, demonstrates how the animated movie market has diversified. Disney and Pixar, the latter of which is owned by Disney, are of course cultural forces and perennial champions at the box office (Disney more so since it recovered from a slump with the recent films 鈥淭angled,鈥� 鈥淲reck-It Ralph,鈥� and 鈥淔rozen鈥�).
Hopeful competitors such as Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Animation had mixed results at first with going up against the two titans. Dreamworks' Shrek鈥� series and the movie 鈥淪hark Tale鈥� became hits in the early 2000s but other films like 2003鈥檚 鈥淪inbad: Legend of the Seven Seas鈥� and the 2006 movie 鈥淔lushed Away鈥� did not succeed. Recently, however, Dreamworks has triumphed with the 鈥淜ung Fu Panda鈥� film series and the 鈥淗ow to Train Your Dragon鈥� movies.聽
Universal, which is behind "Minions" and the "Despicable" movies, had success with the 1980s animated films 鈥淎n American Tail鈥� and 鈥淭he Land Before Time.鈥� More recent efforts like 鈥淐oraline鈥� and 鈥淐urious George鈥� did fairly well, but it was 鈥淒espicable鈥� that was a huge hit for Universal, eventually coming in at number seven on the highest-grossing movies of 2010. The sequel grossed even more and came in at number four on the list of the highest-grossing movies of 2013. Time will tell how 鈥淢inions鈥� does at the box office and what Universal does with this success, but the fact that another studio is even thinking of releasing an animated film a couple of weeks after a Pixar film shows how the animated movie landscape has changed.