Minions (film)

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"The Minions" redirects here. For other uses, see Minion (disambiguation).
Minions
Minions poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
Written by Brian Lynch
Starring
Narrated by Geoffrey Rush
Music by Heitor Pereira[1]
Edited by Claire Dodgson
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • June 11, 2015 (2015-06-11) (London premiere)[2]
  • July 10, 2015 (2015-07-10) (United States)[3]
Running time
 91 minutes[4]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $74 million[5][6]
Box office $187.9 million[7]

Minions is a 2015 American 3D computer-animated family comedy film,[8] and a prequel/spin-off to the Despicable Me franchise. Produced by Illumination Entertainment for Universal Pictures, the film was written by Brian Lynch, directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, and produced by Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy.[9] The film stars Coffin (as the Minions), Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, and Geoffrey Rush. The film premiered on June 11, 2015, in London, and was released in the United States on July 10, 2015.[3] The film was first foreshadowed in the ending credits of Despicable Me 2, where Stuart, Kevin, and Bob, three of the Minions, are seen auditioning for the film.[10]

Plot[edit]

Minions are small, yellow pill-like creatures who have existed since the beginning of time, evolving from single-celled organisms into beings who have only one purpose: to serve history's most villainous bosses.[11] They successfully find great masters, including a T. Rex, a caveman, an Egyptian pharaoh, Dracula,[12] and Napoleon,[3] but after accidentally executing them all soon after, they decide to isolate themselves from the world and start a new life in Antarctica.[12] By 1968, the lack of a master drives them into depression, so fearless lead Minion Kevin comes up with a plan to find a new one for his Minion-kind.[3][12][13] He is joined by rebellious teenage Minion Stuart (who unwittingly was selected) and lovable kid Minion Bob (due to his begging and lack of volunteers).

After a long journey, the Minions arrive at New York, where at a shopping center on TV, they learn about Villain-Con, a villain convention where supervillains from around the world gather, which is to be held in Orlando, Florida. They manage to hitch a ride to Orlando, where coincidentally, the family who drove them are criminals heading to Villain-Con as well. After seeing various supervillains, they finally become the henchmen for Scarlet Overkill, the world's first female supervillain.

Scarlet takes the Minions to her residence in London, where she instructs the Minions to steal St Edward's Crown from Queen Elizabeth II for her, threatening to execute them if they fail. With the help of the weapons of Herb, Scarlet's husband, the Minions successfully break into the Tower of London, However, the crown has already been delivered to the palace. The Minions steal the crown from the Queen's carriage, destroying the carriage in the process, while pursued by the police. In the process, Bob crash lands on the mythical Sword in the Stone, where he pulls the sword Excalibur out easily to defend himself. Elizabeth is then removed from the throne, and Bob is crowned as the new King of the United Kingdom.

Convinced they are traitors, Scarlet confronts the Minions, attempting to execute them, then she craves her revenge. King Bob eventually abdicates in Scarlet's favor. However, Scarlet ultimately betrays the Minions, locking them in the palace dungeon where they are to be tortured by Herb, although this backfires due to their unusual shapes and abilities. When Herb goes to attend his wife's coronation, the Minions escape the dungeon through a sewer, intending on apologizing to Scarlet.

At Westminster Abbey, the Minions accidentally interrupt Scarlet's coronation by unscrewing a chandelier, which falls and crushes Scarlet before she could be crowned. Scarlet orders the attendees of the coronation, some of which are super-villains, to execute the Minions. Stuart and Bob are captured while Kevin hides in a bar, where he finds Elizabeth working there. After learning that Scarlet is going to execute Stuart and Bob, Kevin breaks into Herb's laboratory, where he triggers a machine which turns him into a giant and destroys the Overkill residence.

Simultaneously, the rest of the Minions in Antarctica encounter a few Yetis. The Minions begin to work for the leader of the Yetis, but once again accidentally kill their leader when a piece of ice falls on his head, causing the remaining Yetis to pursue the Minions in anger. The Minions travel around the world, eventually landing in Britain.

Kevin rescues his companions from execution as the army of Minions arrive in London. Scarlet is distracted by the army of Minions and Kevin knocks her away, however the supervillain attempts to escape with Herb using her dress rocket. Before escaping, Kevin is able to hold onto her rocket, seemingly killing her and Herb and shrinking himself back to his original size.

Elizabeth is once again crowned Queen of the United Kingdom and, in front of a crowd, presents Bob, Stuart, and Kevin with their rewards: a tiny crown for Bob, an electric guitar (later replaced by a snowglobe) for Stuart and a knighthood respectively for Kevin. Scarlet is suddenly revealed to be alive and snatches the Queen's crown with Herb, but she is stopped and frozen by young Gru. Scarlet is disappointed until Bob gives her his tiny crown. At the end of the film, the Minions see Gru as their new potential boss and chase after him, setting up the plot for Despicable Me.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

In July 2012, Universal Studios and Illumination Entertainment announced that the Minions from Despicable Me would get their own spin-off film, and was planned for a 2014 release.[25] On August 21, 2012, it was announced that the film would be released on December 19, 2014.[26] In February 2013, Sandra Bullock joined the cast to voice Scarlet Overkill,[15] with Jon Hamm joining two months later as her husband Herb Overkill.[16] On September 20, 2013, the film's release date was pushed back from December 19, 2014 to July 10, 2015,[27] due to Universal's satisfaction with the July release of Despicable Me 2[28] and desire to exploit fully the merchandising potential of a summer film.[27]

Release[edit]

The film had its world premiere on June 11, 2015 at Odeon Leicester Square in London, United Kingdom.[2] On June 17, 2015, it was released theatrically in Indonesia and Australia.[29] The next day, on June 18, they were followed by releases in Malaysia and Singapore,[29] and by a screening at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, in France.[30] In the United States, the film premiered on June 27, 2015, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles,[31] and was theatrically released in the United States on July 10, 2015.[3]

Marketing[edit]

A series of comics and graphic novels based on the film will be published by Titan Comics.[32] The series will include four comic book issues, two digest collections, two hardcover editions and a paperback collection.[32] Drawn by Didier Ah-koon and Renaud Collin, the series launched on June 17, 2015, with the release of the first issue of the Minions comic book and the first digest collection.[32][33]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

As of July 10, 2015, Minions has grossed $46.2 million in North America and $141.7 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $187.9 million, against a budget of $74 million.[7]

In the United States and Canada, Minions received the widest release for Universal Pictures, the widest of 2015 and the second widest for an animated film behind Shrek Forever After (4,386 theaters).[34] It opened simultaneously with the horror film The Gallows and the sci-fi drama Self/less across 4,301 theaters. Initial projections have the film open around $100–$121 million, which if it does will be the fourth film of 2015 to open more than $100 million (the third by Universal). It would be among the highest animated movie opening of all time; the current record is held by Shrek the Third ($121.6 million), followed by Toy Story 3 ($110.3 million) and Shrek 2 ($108 million), all of which are the only three animated movies to have generated $100 million in its first weekend. However, Universal Pictures decided not to report box office figures for the movie.[5][6][35][36] It made $6.2 million from its Thursday night showings from 2,985 theaters which began at 6 p.m, a record for an animated film,[37][38][39] and $46.17 in its opening day (including Thursday previews), marking the biggest opening day for an animated film and the second biggest single-day (behind the $47.1 million Saturday gross of Shrek the Third).[40]

Minions was released in 44 overseas markets in the month of June and July ahead of its North American release.[41] It earned an estimated $12.5 million in its opening weekend from four countries on 621 screens.[42] It added $37.6 million in its second weekend from 10 countries.[43] In its third weekend, it grossed $56.2 million from 26 countries, coming in second place at the international box office behind Terminator Genisys.[44]

It had the biggest opening day of all time for an animated film in Belgium, France, Hungary, Romania, Russia and the CIS, South Africa, French-speaking Switzerland, Ukraine, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand,[45][46][47] Universal’s biggest opening day of all time in France, French-speaking Switzerland, Hungary, Russia and Ukraine,[45] Universal's second-biggest opening day in Indonesia (behind Furious 7).[41] the second biggest opening day of all time in Russia and the CIS ($3.8 million,[47] and the biggest opening day of all time for all films in Venezuela.[45] Also, it set the record for the biggest opening weekend of all-time for an animated film in Brazil ($7 million), Argentina ($5.4 million), Indonesia and Malaysia.[42][43] In Australia, it opened with $4.4 million.[42] In U.K., Ireland and Malta, the film received the widest release ever for an animated film — across 573 screens — and grossed $18.1m (£11.6m) from its 573 sites, thus achieving the biggest ever three-day opening for an animation in the UK.[43] Elsewhere, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and New Zealand all opened No. 1.[43] Other notable openings were witnessed in Germany ($9.8 million), Spain ($6 million) and Colombia ($3.3 million).[44]

Critical response[edit]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 56%, based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Minions' brightly colored brand of gibberish-fueled insanity stretches to feature length in their self-titled Despicable Me spinoff, with uneven but often hilarious results."[48] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 56 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[49]

Spectrum Culture's film critic J.C. Maçek III gave the film 3.5/5 stars, writing, "Minions does have [comedy] in spades and there are many laugh-out-loud moments for kids and adults."[50]

Soundtrack[edit]

Minions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by Heitor Pereira
Released July 10, 2015
Recorded 2015
Genre Score
Length 67:11
Label Back Lot Music
Heitor Pereira film scores chronology
Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle
(2015)		 Minions
(2015)		 The Moon and the Sun
(2015)

The official soundtrack for the film was released on July 10, 2015 by Back Lot Music. The soundtrack also features the film's original music, composed by Heitor Pereira.[51]

Soundtrack list[edit]

All music composed by Heitor Pereira, except where noted.

No. Title Writer(s) Performer Length
1. "Universal Fanfare"   Jerry Goldsmith The Minions (Pierre Coffin) 0:32
2. "Happy Together"   Garry Bonner, Alan Gordon The Turtles 2:54
3. "I'm a Man"   Steve Winwood, Jimmy Miller The Spencer Davis Group 3:05
4. "You Really Got Me"   Ray Davies The Kinks 2:14
5. "My Generation"   Pete Townshend The Who 3:16
6. "Mellow Yellow"   Donovan Donovan 3:41
7. "Revolution"   Lennon–McCartney The Minions (Pierre Coffin) 2:22
8. "Minions Through Time"       4:34
9. "Kevin, Stuart and Bob"       2:57
10. "Minions Run Amok"       1:29
11. "Tortellini"       0:21
12. "The VNC"       1:11
13. "Minions in the U.S.A."       2:13
14. "Orlando"       0:46
15. "Scarlet Overkill"       1:07
16. "Ruby Fight"       2:58
17. "Make 'Em Laugh"   Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed The Minions (Pierre Coffin) 0:44
18. "Scarlet's Fortress"       3:31
19. "Traveling Tribe"       0:49
20. "Tower of London"       1:39
21. "Hair"   James Rado, Gerome Ragni The Minions (Pierre Coffin) 0:54
22. "Fighting the Crown Keeper"       1:43
23. "King Bob"       0:57
24. "(Theme From) The Monkees"   Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart The Minions (Pierre Coffin) 0:29
25. "Dungeon Mayhem"       0:35
26. "Goodbye Fabrice"       2:28
27. "Minion Mission"       4:56
28. "Sneaking In"       2:34
29. "King Kong Kevin"       3:30
30. "Our Hero Is Back"       1:14
31. "Minions Victory"       2:49
32. "Greatest Renegade Unveiling (GRU)"       2:39
Total length:
 67:11

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Heitor Pereira to Score ‘Minions’ Movie". Film Music Reporter. September 13, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2013. 
  2. ^ a b Saad, Nardine (June 12, 2015). "Sandra Bullock returns to the limelight at 'Minions' world premiere". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 13, 2015. 
  3. ^ a b c d e Brew, Simon (October 29, 2014). "Minions: artwork, synopsis and trailer news". Den of Geek!. Retrieved October 31, 2014. 
  4. ^ "MINIONS (U)". British Board of Film Classification. June 16, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015. 
  5. ^ a b Brent Lang (July 7, 2015). "Box Office: 'Minions' Eyes Massive $100 Million-Plus Debut". Variety. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved July 8, 2015. 
  6. ^ a b Pamela McClintock (July 7, 2015). "Box-Office Preview: 'Minions' Could Match 'Toy Story 3' With $110M U.S. Debut". The Hollywood Reporter. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved July 8, 2015. 
  7. ^ a b "Minions (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  8. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Minions". AllMovie. Retrieved July 8, 2015. 
  9. ^ Fleming, Mike (July 23, 2012). "Illumination And Universal Hatch ‘Despicable Me’ Spinoff About The Minions". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 24, 2012. 
  10. ^ Thompson, Kiley (July 8, 2013). "'Despicable Me 2': You want minions, we'll give you 'Minions'". Zap2it. Retrieved July 13, 2013. 
  11. ^ "Exclusive: The Synopsis for Minions". ComingSoon.net. June 18, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2013. 
  12. ^ a b c "EXCLU - T-Rex, Dracula et cellules jaunes : on en sait plus sur le spin-off des Minions". Premiere. June 13, 2013. Retrieved June 27, 2013. 
  13. ^ Douglas, Edward (March 25, 2014). "CinemaCon: Universal Pictures Shows Off Footage From Its 2014 (and 2015!) Slate". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved March 25, 2014. 
  14. ^ Waugh, Heather (November 27, 2014). "A very Minions Christmas! Loveable characters do their own brand of carol singing in funny video". Daily Mail. Retrieved November 30, 2014. 
  15. ^ a b Fleming, Mike (February 11, 2013). "Sandra Bullock To Voice Super-Villain In ‘Minions’ Spinoff For Illumination/Universal". Deadline.com. Retrieved February 14, 2013. 
  16. ^ a b Fleming, Mike (April 30, 2013). "At Illumination, Jon Hamm Lends Voice To ‘Minions’ Movie; Tito Ortiz Returns As Executive". Deadline.com. Retrieved May 1, 2013. 
  17. ^ a b "The Trailer for the Despicable Me Spinoff Film Minions is Here!". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved November 4, 2014. 
  18. ^ Nemiroff, Perri (June 11, 2015). "MINIONS Pictures: 11 Hi-Res Shots of Kevin, Stuart, Bob, Scarlet Overkill and More". Collider. Retrieved June 20, 2015. 
  19. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 5, 2015). "Allison Janney Joins Tim Burton’s ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved March 20, 2015. 
  20. ^ "Sandra Bullock Minions". Girl.com.au. Retrieved June 20, 2015. 
  21. ^ Tak, Michelle (May 14, 2015). "New Minions Trailer! Goggle-Wearing Cuties Find Another Despicable Master & Steal the Queen's Crown in Latest Adventure". E! Online UK. Retrieved May 15, 2015. 
  22. ^ White, James (May 15, 2015). "New Minions Promo Drops Online". Empire Online. Retrieved May 15, 2015. 
  23. ^ a b "Trailer: 'Minions' spin-off from 'Despicable Me' series". Yahoo! News. November 4, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2015. 
  24. ^ Osmond, Andrew (June 27, 2015). "Toon of the week: Minions". Sight & Sound (British Film Institute). Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  25. ^ Mike Fleming (2012-07-23). "Illumination And Universal Hatch ‘Despicable Me’ Spinoff About The Minions". Deadline. Retrieved 2012-07-23. 
  26. ^ "Universal Sets Release Date for 'Despicable Me' Spin-Off Project". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 20, 2013. 
  27. ^ a b Graser, Marc (September 20, 2013). "Universal, Illumination Move their ‘Minions’ to Summer 2015". Variety. Retrieved October 15, 2013. 
  28. ^ McClintock, Pamela (September 20, 2013). "'Minions' Movie Pushed Back From Christmas 2014 to Summer 2015". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2013. 
  29. ^ a b Lang, Brent (June 18, 2015). "Box Office: ‘Minions’ Kicks Off Run in Australia and Indonesia". Variety. Retrieved June 19, 2015. 
  30. ^ "Meet Your Favourite Minions!". Annecy. Retrieved May 31, 2015. 
  31. ^ Saad, Nardine (June 29, 2015). "Sandra Bullock rocks 'Minions' heels for charity at Los Angeles premiere". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 2, 2015. 
  32. ^ a b c McMillan, Graeme (April 1, 2015). "'Despicable Me' Spinoff 'Minions' Head to Comics This Summer (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 17, 2015. 
  33. ^ Minions, Store (April 22, 2015). "Plushes Minions from the new movie". Minions-store.fr. Retrieved April 22, 2015. 
  34. ^ "WIDEST RELEASES (or The 3,000+ Club)". Box Office Mojo. (Amazon.com). Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  35. ^ Anita Busch (July 10, 2015). "‘Minions’ Marching To $114M To $116M Weekend – Box Office Friday". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  36. ^ Pamela McClintock, Rebecca Ford (July 10, 2015). "Box Office: 'Minions' Land Record $46.2M Friday". The Hollywood Reporter. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  37. ^ Anita Busch (July 10, 2015). "‘Minions’ Nab $6.2M In Thursday Previews – Box Office". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved July 10, 2015. 
  38. ^ Rebecca Ford (July 10, 2015). "Box Office: 'Minions' Earns Strong $6.2 Million Thursday Night". The Hollywood Reporter. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved July 10, 2015. 
  39. ^ Scott Mendelson (July 10, 2015). "Box Office: 'Minions' Nabs Record $6.2M Thursday". Forbes. (Forbes, Inc). Retrieved July 10, 2015. 
  40. ^ Scott Mendelson (July 11, 2015). "Box Office: 'Minions' Goes Bananas With Record $46M Friday". Forbes. (Forbes, Inc). Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  41. ^ a b Anita Busch (June 18, 2015). "‘Minions’ Offshore Release Tracking Well Ahead Of ‘Despicable Me 2′ – Intl Box Office". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved June 19, 2015. 
  42. ^ a b c Nancy Tartaglione (June 21, 2015). "‘Jurassic World’ Nears $1B Global; ‘Inside Out’, ‘Minions’ Highly Animated In Debuts – Intl Box Office Update". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved June 22, 2015. 
  43. ^ a b c d Nancy Tartaglione (June 29, 2015). "‘Terminator: Genisys’ Lords Over ‘Salvation'; Dinos Mighty With $84.3M More; ‘Minions’ Well Outpacing ‘DM2′ – Intl Box Office Final". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved June 30, 2015. 
  44. ^ a b "‘Terminator’ Back With $73.3M; ‘Minions’ Mints Higher Haul Of $56.2M – Intl Box Office Final". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). July 6, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2015. 
  45. ^ a b c Nancy Tartaglione (July 11, 2015). "‘Minions’ Mints $209M Overseas With 56 Markets Now Open – Saturday Update". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved July 12, 2015. 
  46. ^ Anita Busch (June 20, 2015). "‘Minions’ Grabs $12M In Four Markets – Intl Box Office". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved June 21, 2015. 
  47. ^ a b Nancy Tartaglione (July 10, 2015). "‘Minions’ Crossing $200M Overseas As Records Fall In France, Russia & More". Deadline.com'm. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved July 11, 2015. 
  48. ^ "Minions". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved July 10, 2015. 
  49. ^ "Minions". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 10, 2015. 
  50. ^ Maçek III, J.C. (July 9, 2015). "Minions". Spectrum Culture. 
  51. ^ "Back Lot Music to Release ‘Minions’ Soundtrack". Film Music Reporter. May 20, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2015. 

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