Universal Pictures re-wrote the record books this summer and the studio hasn’t finished. Minions, which was produced by the in-house Illumination Entertainment animation studio, is now the second-highest grossing animated film in movie history.
Thanks to a huge $20.1 million opening in China on Sunday, the film is now at $748 million internationally. In the U.S., the film has grossed $332 million, notes TheWrap. Out that together and you get $1.08 billion globally.
That puts it past Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 3, which grossed $1.06 billion in 2010.
Toy Story 3 actually did have the distinction of being the highest-grossing animated film for awhile, but then something called Frozen happened in 2013. That film, by Disney’s own feature animation unit, finished its box office run with $1.28 billion.
Frozen is currently eighth on the all-time worldwide box office list. is No. 15.
Minions is a spin-off of Illumination’s Despicable Me franchise and has outgrossed both previous movies in that series. Who needs Steve Carell when babbling yellow pills can bring in even more ticket buyers?
For the record, Despicable Me 2 is No. 26 on the all-time list with $970.8 million worldwide. The first film made $543.1 million.