Universal Studios said today that its Despicable Me spin off focusing on the popular Minion characters will not be released until July 2015.
Illumination Entertainment, which is owned by Universal, said today that the untitled film will now be out on July 10, 2015, instead of Dec. 19, 2014, notes TheWrap. It means that Universal will be without an animated release for a year for the first time since 2009. (Disney also rescheduled Pixar’s 2014 release The Good Dinosaur, so that studio will also go without a release in 2014.)
Universal and Illumination declined to explain the decision, but sources for TheWrap and The Hollywood Reporter said that the studio is hoping that the Minions movie will be as big as Despicable Me 2. That film was released in July of this year and it has made $840.5 million so far.
With the Minions movie coming out in July 2015, Universal has now pushed an untitled Illumination film from July 3, 2015 to Feb. 12, 2016.
Universal’s decision to not release a film on July 4 weekend in 2015 is likely because of the already packed schedule. Sony has Independence Day 2 scheduled to open that weekend and the new Terminator movie was moved to that weekend. The Batman and Superman movie (Man of Steel 2) is also slated to open that July.
image: Universal/image.net