Minions 3 Release Date Set for 2027

©Universal/Courtesy of Everett Col

After “Despicable Me 4” topped the Fourth of July weekend with $230 million at the worldwide box office, Universal and Illumination have announced “Minions 3” as the next chapter in the hit animated franchise.

The mischievous yellow minions will return to theaters on June 30, 2027, in a film written by Brian Lynch (“Minions,” “The Secret Life of Pets”) and directed by Academy Award nominee Pierre Coffin (director of the first three “Despicable Me” films and the first “Minions”). Coffin has provided the voice of the minions since their debut in 2010’s “Despicable Me.”

The film will be produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and Bill Ryan (“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”).

Since its release in 2010, “Despicable Me” and “Minions” have become the biggest global animated franchises in history, with the two films collectively grossing nearly $5 billion. 2022’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” topped the global box office in its opening weekend and broke July 4th weekend records with a domestic take of $125 million. “Despicable Me 4” has nearly matched that number, with an impressive domestic debut of $122.6 million, and is expected to top the charts again in its second weekend of release, grossing more than $30 million.

In an article analyzing the summer box office and the state of animation, diverse “A weekend once reserved for Will Smith — which hosted the return of an aging Indiana Jones last year — has long since become the domain of the ‘Despicable Me’ movies,” wrote senior film critic Peter Debruge.

For seven of the past 14 years, he noted, Illumination Entertainment has made a point of releasing one of its animated films (which also includes “The Secret Life of Pets,” another hit franchise in its $10 billion library) on or after Independence Day weekend—a strategy that appears to be working. (“Despicable Me 2” and “Despicable Me 3” have each grossed more than $1 billion at the global box office.)

“Less than a year after the writers and actors strike shut down Hollywood, kid-friendly animated movies are now a major boost to the box office,” he concluded, also pointing to the $1 billion grossing “Inside Out 2” as evidence of animation’s dominance in theaters.