When Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri recently received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he joked about his own future obscurity. “Unless they’re related to me, they’ll ask: ‘Who the hell was that guy?’” he told the crowd.
Yet, amid Hollywood’s constant turbulence, the low-profile executive has built one of the industry’s most reliable blockbuster engines.
Family films are driving the box office like never before, with Illumination leading the charge. Since debuting with Despicable Me in 2010, the studio has raked in over $11 billion globally. Their massive hit, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, stands as the year’s only billion-dollar film so far, and their next feature, Minions & Monsters—premiering Sunday at France’s Annecy Film Festival—looks poised to match it.
While the Minions remain the studio’s flagship characters, Illumination’s empire has expanded through high-profile partnerships, including the Mario franchise with Nintendo, an upcoming Barbie animated project with Mattel, and original hits like Sing. Ultimately, the brand is defined by pure, unadulterated fun. “From the outset, we really wanted to make films that would be joyous above everything else,” Meledandri said, noting a shared love for classic, Looney Tunes-style slapstick.
Minions & Monsters, hitting theaters on July 1, leans heavily into that chaotic energy. The film—the seventh installment in the Despicable Me universe—hands a movie camera to the franchise’s most destructive creatures. Set in 1920s Hollywood, the story pays homage to silent film icons like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, features Jeff Bridges as a studio executive, and even tongue-in-cheekily credits a Minion named James as the director.
