that happened with lego Movie. after that film, there’s angry birds, tetrix, flappy bird, emoji……ugh

Well, that’s great for fans of marketing, but I’m more of a fan of animation, myself, believe it or not. 😉 And yes, there are many ways for something to deserve or not deserve what it gets.

I like your analogy with the Shrek franchise, which fits the common profile of sequel franchises rather well. Third installments often are lazy cash grabs that taint the franchise as a whole. We’ll see whether the pattern continues from this point for the Despicable Me franchise, counting Minions as the third installment.

You have to think about Shrek 3. It is also one of the highest money makers for animation but it also skunked the franchise so 4 didn’t do very well and I don’t know anyone that holds it in high regard. So, yes made a lot of money but isn’t a good movie.

I’ve long suspected that from the point of view of the general audience the Minions are the stars, regardless of the original intention.

Eh, well the audience will slowly get the insult haha

Nonetheless, I still think Minions deserves every inch of success it has found. Even though the franchise is growing old for me, personally, I still am proud of Illumination for what they have done in such a short amount of time.

It’s a metaphor for the general movie-going public. 😉 OK, that was a bit elitist and condescending and all that awful stuff, but I couldn’t help thinking it, and…maybe it’s true on their part! 😀

Yes very interesting, let’s see if the fame continues for another go.

Honestly with the setting I was a little surprised that this one didnt have a mention of the moon to tie it all together. Otherwise it felt very much the same to me.

Or it could be that the Minions were always the main attraction of the Despicable Me movies after all, as many box office observers believed all along. It’s kind of hard to believe because those movies don’t revolve around them (and for me there is hardly anything to these characters), but on the other hand I can’t help but feel that they’re more than just the comic relief–I think their scenes were what many people really liked, which is why a whole movie about them could be so successful in the face of other sidekick movies flopping (at least relative to their original movies).

While I agree with you that Minions is in some ways (but hardly all) more like a part of the franchise than something different that went on a tangent, I think there is still more to it than that. The original movie was very successful, but it was the second one that really exploded as a mega-blockbuster, and I’m thinking this was in large part because the Minions specifically became some kind of merchandise and pop culture phenomenon in the interim. People won’t flock to a movie about the Penguins of Madagascar or Puss in Boots because although they got laughs they were just the comic relief, while the Minions are, for some crazy reason, the real stars of their franchise.

By the way, on my own side note, Minions, although huge, grossed a fair amount less than Despicable Me 2 in the domestic market, while grossing a lot more overseas. I’m not sure what this means, but it will be interesting to revisit when the results from Despicable Me 3 come in a couple of years from now.