Predicting The Next 10 Billion Dollar Movies
9. Despicable Me 3
There is a simple one-word answer as to why Illumination's upcoming feature will earn over a billion dollars at the box office; Minions. Love them or hate them (and this writer falls very, very firmly into the latter category), the little yellow b*stards have become nothing short of a pop culture phenomenon.
Besides the comic relief characters, the Despicable Me franchise itself has shown considerable growth. The first movie earned an impressive $543.1m, the sequel made $970.8m while the Minions spinoff raked in over $1.1bn, making it the second-highest grossing animated feature in history behind only Frozen.
When you factor in Illumination's recent track record for commercial success (The Secret Life of Pets and Sing earned over $1.5bn combined last year) and the overwhelming appeal of the Minions from both a marketing and merchandising standpoint then it seems inevitable that Despicable Me 3 will cross the billion dollar threshold.