A Despicable Sequel And Spin-Offs Are On The Way
If the big bucks DESPICABLE ME opened to this weekend for Universal didn’t tell you that a sequel was definitely going to happen, then maybe this will… a sequel is definitely going to happen.
Discussions are already underway at Universal and Illumination Entertainment, the studio’s particular brand which deals exclusively in family entertainment/animation, on the next step to take for Gru in DESPICABLE ME 2, according to Deadline Hollywood. On top of that, 2 spin-off shorts are in the works revolving around the entertaining Minions, with no word on as to whether they would appear in front of future Illumination films, much like Pixar shorts, or if they’d have some different placement, perhaps on DVD/Blu-ray releases.
While I wasn’t a big fan of the movie, there is long-term potential for Universal to have a franchise with significant branding if they continue to play their cards right. Of course, they could just drive this whole series into the ground, much like DreamWorks Animation did with SHREK, but, if they take care of this, they could have a money-maker for quite some time. You could easily draw a parallel between the Minions and the Penguins from the MADAGASCAR films, who were spun off into their own animated series, expanding the revenue stream.
Financially, DESPICABLE ME was a great start for Universal to make its presence felt in the animation game. Whether or not it continues will depend on the choices they make in the future, but Illumination Entertainment seems to have quite the game plan to help take Universal into the future placed extremely well with their slate of family entertainment on the horizon.
