Minions & Monsters opens in North America today after a promising $10 million box office kick-off in 10 territories in Europe and Asia this past week.
Arriving in cinemas in the wake of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 and its near $600 million gross since June 19, all eyes are on whether Illumination/Universal’s little yellow monsters can pull off a similar box office coup.
To date, Illumination’s four Despicable Me films, which first introduced the Minions with original picture Despicable Me in 2010, and spin-offs Minions and Minions: The Rise of Gru, have grossed more than $5.6 billion at the global box office.
Speaking to Deadline at the Annecy International Film Festival last week, where the picture world premiered on June 21, director Pierre Coffin and Illumination founder and CEO Christopher Meledandri questioned the focus on the box office as a sign of the film’s success.
“I want to make the best movie possible. I want it to be something that I’m proud of and I’m obviously proud if the movie makes a lot, but my main goal is not like I want to this movie to make two billion, it’s not my motivation,” said Coffin.
Referring to the $5.6 billion figure cited in Universal press releases in the lead up to the Minions & Monsters launch, Meledandri added: “There’s somewhat of a false premise in even putting those kinds of numbers out there.”
“First of all the way people are receiving and watching movies is changing. I think Pierre and I share the desire to have the movie be enjoyed by as many people as possible,” he continued. “The reality of that is that we’re not in control of the balance of how those viewings are going to be split between the people who rush out to see it… and then how many times it’ll be seen, for example, on streaming.
“At the end of the day, ultimately, the most important thing is that people enjoy the film and hundreds of millions of people are going to see this movie however that happens… so the box office is almost somewhat of a misleading indicator to really what happens in the world today.”
Meledandri made it clear, however, that he still very much believes in the power of the theatrical experience.
“I don’t think cinema is going away, but I do think that with all of the change that’s happening and all the things that are competing for people’s attention, now is a moment in time for everybody who loves cinema to really champion it,” he said.
“And that means everything from making great movies to being enthusiasts for it and reminding people of just the joy and impact that you can have all gathering together… we work very hard to get people excited about seeing films in theatres because we want that to remain a very special part of our culture,” he continued.
“The most important thing that we can do in order to encourage that, is make movies that feel surprising… whether they’re original film, or based on some existing property or a sequel or a prequel to a movie, you really have to put the emphasis on that discovery that can occur because the filmmaker has really become interested in making something that’s quite differentiated. I feel Pierre has done that beautifully with this movie. The unexpected is so critical right now.”
Minions & Monsters, sees the Minions land in the Golden Age of Hollywood, with a storyline led by new characters, James, an artistic Minion with dreams of becoming a director; comedic sidekick and bestie Henry, and mute companion Ed.
The story unfolds with a recap of the Minions’ indefatigable hunt for a truly evil boss, which leads them to California, where they latch onto a gun-toting bandit, thinking he could be a candidate, not realizing he is an actor and that they have gate-crashed a film shoot.
While the director tears his hair out, the producers see the footage and sign the Minions on the spot, but their fame is short-lived with the arrival of the talkies. James plots a comeback film, conjuring up a real-life monster for a key role, unwittingly leashing an evil power hellbent on destroying L.A. and the world.
A love letter to the early days of the film industry, the picture is peppered with allusions to pioneers such as Auguste and Louis Lumière and their groundbreaking Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory short and Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon as well as silent era heroes Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Coffin acknowledged that younger Minions fans will likely not recognise many of the allusions but says it now does not matter, and that he had been drawn to the era for its comedic possibilities as much as anything.
“The setting is something for me, for us, to dig into in terms of how can we make it funny and what elements of that era are funny to us today? For example, the spitting on the shoes to clean them,” he said, referring to a street shoe-shine scene.
“It’s a period movie but it doesn’t have any sort of educational purpose… the idea was to take all those iconic things like the Harold Llyod clock scene and suggest that those particular moments were inspired by the Minions or rather caused by the Minions.”
Meledandri added that he is still interested in how younger audiences with no knowledge of the references will respond.
“If you just think about how young people consume imagery, they’re consuming bits and pieces of imagery all the time. Even though you may have no idea that that’s an homage to Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, it’s still kind of a wild image… the knowledge is not a precondition to enjoying the film,” he said.
Alongside directing, Coffin has once again voiced the Minions’ nonsensical language. He acknowledged a change in pace and tone this year from Minions: The Rise of Gru.
“In 2015, we had problems in terms of I couldn’t have them speak for too long because it was unbearable for me. It was unbearable for everyone. I didn’t have the keys as to how to do that. It’s a learning process,” said Coffin.
“In this one, I used everything possible to make the language sort of bearable in terms of the length, by finding tricks like putting a human character or someone that we understand repeat what they said, so a character that really doesn’t know how to speak Minion but sort of helps the audience, or having a character that magically understands the Minions paraphrase, like Goomi… I think I’ve gotten a bit better at finding the melody of what’s happening.”
As Minions & Monsters takes off in cinemas worldwide, there are no concrete plans for another picture in Despicable Me/Minions franchise as yet.
“In the Despicable Me world, it’s so hard to find a story that ignites the level of interest… so there’s always conversation… we’re always searching to see when and if something ignites that interest, but haven’t found it yet,” said Meledandri.
In the meantime, confirmed projects in development and production at Paris-based Illumination include Sing 3, The Secret Lives of Pets 3 and Not Alone, which was announced during Annecy.
“We’ve waited a long time on Pets to find an idea to develop that I felt was really, really worthy of making as a film, so we’re developing that, we’re developing a Sing movie, and we’ve just announced our next film Not Alone, which is an entirely original film,” said Meledandri.
Featuring Timothée Chalamet and Selena Gomez in the voice cast, Not Alone is directed by longtime Illumination animators Jonathan del Val, Claire Dodgson and Eric Guillon.
“It is directed by people who have come up through the studio… Eric Guillon was so pivotal in all of the design work for Minions and Despicable Me, the worlds, the characters, and the Sing worlds… He is a brilliant artist. Jonathan Del Val is one of our strongest directing animators, and Claire Dodgson, one of our really strong editors. It’s a homegrown team directing in Paris.”
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