List of Illumination productions

This is a list of productions produced by Illumination (formerly known as Illumination Entertainment), an American film and animation studio based in Santa Monica, California, United States. This includes feature films, shorts, television specials, and digital series. As of 2025, Illumination has released 15 feature films, which were all distributed by Universal Pictures, with their first being Despicable Me on July 9, 2010, and their latest being Despicable Me 4 on July 3, 2024.

Current logo, used first in Despicable Me 3 (2017)

Their upcoming slate of films includes an untitled follow-up film to The Super Mario Bros. Movie on April 3, 2026, and Minions 3 on July 1, 2026. In addition, an untitled film is scheduled to be released on April 16, 2027.

Feature films

All films are distributed by Universal Pictures unless noted otherwise.

Released

Title	Release date	Director(s)	Writer(s)		Producer(s)	Executive producer(s)	Co-production with	Animation service(s)
			Story	Screenplay
Despicable Me	July 9, 2010	Chris Renaud Pierre Coffin	Sergio Pablos	Cinco Paul Ken Daurio	Chris Meledandri Janet Healy John Cohen	Sergio Pablos Nina Rowan	—	Mac Guff
Hop	April 1, 2011	Tim Hill	Cinco Paul Ken Daurio		Chris Meledandri Michele Imperato Stabile	John Cohen	Relativity Media	Rhythm & Hues
			—	Brian Lynch
The Lorax	March 2, 2012	Chris Renaud Co-director: Kyle Balda	Based on the book by Dr. Seuss		Chris Meledandri Janet Healy	Audrey Geisel Cinco Paul Ken Daurio	—	Illumination Mac Guff Mac Guff[1]
			Cinco Paul Ken Daurio
Despicable Me 2	July 3, 2013	Chris Renaud Pierre Coffin				—		Illumination Mac Guff
Minions	July 10, 2015	Pierre Coffin Kyle Balda	Brian Lynch			Chris Renaud
The Secret Life of Pets	July 8, 2016	Chris Renaud Co-director: Yarrow Cheney	Cinco Paul Ken Daurio Brian Lynch			—
Sing	December 21, 2016	Garth Jennings Co-director: Christophe Lourdelet	Garth Jennings
Despicable Me 3	June 30, 2017	Pierre Coffin Kyle Balda Co-director: Eric Guillon	Cinco Paul Ken Daurio			Chris Renaud
The Grinch	November 9, 2018	Scott Mosier Yarrow Cheney	Based on the book by Dr. Seuss			Latifa Ouaou Audrey Geisel Chris Renaud
			Michael LeSieur Tommy Swerdlow
The Secret Life of Pets 2	June 7, 2019	Chris Renaud Co-director: Jonathan del Val	Brian Lynch			Brett Hoffman
Sing 2	December 22, 2021	Garth Jennings Co-director: Christophe Lourdelet	Garth Jennings			Dana Krupinski		Illumination Studios Paris
Minions: The Rise of Gru	July 1, 2022	Kyle Balda Co-directors: Brad Ableson Jonathan del Val	Matthew Fogel		Chris Meledandri Janet Healy Chris Renaud	Brett Hoffman
			Brian Lynch	—
The Super Mario Bros. Movie	April 5, 2023	Aaron Horvath Michael Jelenic Co-directors: Pierre Leduc Fabien Polack	Based on the video game series by Nintendo		Chris Meledandri Shigeru Miyamoto	Brett Hoffman Bill Ryan Yusuke Beppu	Nintendo
			Matthew Fogel
Migration	December 22, 2023	Benjamin Renner Co-director: Guylo Homsy	Mike White		Chris Meledandri	Joy Poirel	—
			Benjamin Renner	—
Despicable Me 4	July 3, 2024	Chris Renaud Co-director: Patrick Delage	Mike White Ken Daurio		Chris Meledandri Brett Hoffman	—

Upcoming

Title	Release date	Director(s)	Writer(s)		Producer(s)	Co-production with	Animation service(s)	Production Status	Ref.
			Story	Screenplay
Untitled The Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel	April 3, 2026	Aaron Horvath Michael Jelenic	Based on the video game series by Nintendo		Chris Meledandri Shigeru Miyamoto	Nintendo	Illumination Studios Paris	In production	[2][3]
			Matthew Fogel
Minions 3	July 1, 2026	Pierre Coffin	Brian Lynch		Chris Meledandri Bill Ryan	TBA			[4][5]
Untitled film	April 16, 2027	TBA							[5]
Undated
Big Tree	TBA		Based on an idea by Steven Spielberg Chris Meledandri		TBA			In development	[6]
The Secret Life of Pets 3			TBA				Illumination Studios Paris		[7][8]
Sing 3									[8]
Untitled Pharrell Williams film			TBA						[9]
Untitled Donkey Kong film			Based on the video game series by Nintendo		TBA	Nintendo	Illumination Studios Paris		[10]
Cut the Rope			Based on the video game by ZeptoLab			ZeptoLab	DNEG
Untitled Barbie film			Based on the toyline by Mattel			Mattel Studios	TBA		[11]

Short films

Title	Release date	Distribution/Co-production with	Director(s)	Animation service(s)	Released with	Note(s)
Home Makeover	December 14, 2010	Universal Studios Home Entertainment	Samuel Tourneux and Kyle Balda	Mac Guff	Despicable Me	Home video release
Orientation Day
Banana
Brad & Gary[12][13][14]	July 1, 2011	Universal Pictures	Pierre Coffin		—	Theatrical release
Phil's Dance Party	March 23, 2012	Universal Studios Home Entertainment	Chris Bailey	Rhythm & Hues	Hop	Home video release
Wagon Ho!	August 7, 2012	Universal Studios Home Entertainment Dr. Seuss Enterprises	Kyle Balda	Illumination Mac Guff	The Lorax	Home video release
Forces of Nature
Serenade
Puppy	December 10, 2013	Universal Studios Home Entertainment	Yarrow Cheney and Bruno Dequier		Despicable Me 2
Panic in the Mailroom			Fabrice Joubert and Mark O'Hare
Training Wheels			Eric Favela and Régis Schuller
Cro Minion	December 8, 2015		Didier Ah-Koon and Régis Schuller		Minions
Competition			Julien Soret and Kyle Balda
Binky Nelson Unpacified			Fabrice Joubert and Brian Lynch
Mower Minions	July 8, 2016	Universal Pictures	Bruno Chauffard and Glenn McCoy		The Secret Life of Pets	Theatrical release/Home video release
Norman Television	December 6, 2016	Universal Pictures Home Entertainment	Habib Louati and Boris Jacq			Home video release
Weenie			Kyle Balda, Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul
Gunter Babysits	March 21, 2017		Adrien Borzakian and Eric Favela		Sing
Love at First Sight			Benjamin Le Ster and Matthew Nealon
Eddie's Life Coach			Scott Mosier and Guylo Homsy
The Secret Life of Kyle	December 5, 2017		Bruno Chauffard and Glenn McCoy		Despicable Me 3
Yellow is the New Black	November 9, 2018	Universal Pictures	Serguei Kouchnerov and Fabien Polack		The Grinch	Theatrical release/Home video release
The Dog Days of Winter	November 23, 2018	NBCUniversal Television Distribution Dr. Seuss Enterprises	Habib Louati and Thierry Noblet		Trolls Holiday	Television release
					The Grinch	Home video release
Santa's Little Helpers	February 5, 2019	Universal Pictures Home Entertainment	Derek Drymon and Bruno Chauffard
Super Gidget	August 27, 2019		Glenn McCoy and Boris Jacq		The Secret Life of Pets 2
Minion Scouts			Guy Bar'ely and Frank Baradat
Minions & Monsters	June 11, 2021	NBCUniversal Syndication Studios	Jed Diffenderfer and Chloé Lesueur		Minions: The Rise of Gru	Television release/Home video release
For Gunter's Eyes Only	March 29, 2022	Universal Pictures Home Entertainment	David Pellé and David Feiss	Illumination Studios Paris	Sing 2	Home video release
Animal Attraction			Damien Bapst and Fabrice Joubert
Post Modern Minion	September 6, 2022		Bastien Laurent and Matthew Nealon		Minions: The Rise of Gru
Penglai[15]	September 16, 2022	Universal Pictures	Momo Wang	One and All Animation Studio	—	Limited theatrical release
Mooned	December 22, 2023		Jonathan del Val	Illumination Studios Paris	Migration	Theatrical release/Home video release
Fly Hard	February 27, 2024	Universal Pictures Home Entertainment	Hélène Galtier and Elisabeth Patte			Home video release
Midnight Mission			Céline Allegre and Guylo Homsy
Game Over and Over	September 24, 2024		Christophe Delisle, Christophe Lourdelet and Ludovic Roz		Despicable Me 4
Benny's Birthday			Chris Allison and Olivier Luffin
Sing: Thriller	October 16, 2024	Netflix Universal Pictures	Garth Jennings		—	Streaming release[16]

Compilations

Title	Release date	Distribution/Co-production with	Animation service(s)	Streaming service(s)	Shorts included
Minions & More 1	September 20, 2022	Universal Pictures	Illumination Studios Paris	Netflix	Puppy The Dog Days of Winter Minion Scouts Norman Television Training Wheels Love at First Sight The Secret Life of Kyle Weenie Forces of Nature Santa's Little Helpers
Minions & More 2	November 8, 2022				Mower Minions Super Gidget Yellow is the New Black Eddie's Life Coach Competition Serenade Cro Minion Wagon Ho! Binky Nelson Unpacified Panic in the Mailroom Gunter Babysits

Television specials

Title	Release date	Distribution/Co-production with	Animation service(s)	Network(s)	Shorts included
Minions Holiday Special	November 27, 2020	NBCUniversal Television Distribution	Illumination Mac Guff	NBC	Santa's Little Helpers Training Wheels Puppy Minion Scouts

Series

Web series

Title	Premiere date	End date	Network(s)
Saturday Morning Minions	June 5, 2021	March 5, 2022	Facebook Instagram
Who's Who?	July 13, 2023	August 3, 2023	TikTok YouTube
Bones Story	TBA	TBA

Unproduced films

Main article: List of unproduced Universal Pictures animated projects

Title	Description
Emily the Strange	Since 2000, Rob Reger has been trying to make a feature film adaptation of Emily. In 2005, Fox Animation went to make a live action/animated feature film,[17] with Chris Meledandri and John Cohen producing it.[18] Mike Richardson, of Dark Horse Entertainment, came on board as a producer in 2008.[19] The same year it was unofficially reported that the film moved to Universal Studios' owned Illumination Entertainment, along with the studio's founders, Meledandri and Cohen.[20] In September 2010, Universal Studios acquired the rights to the comic, and the actress Chloë Grace Moretz was cast in the role of Emily.[21] Melisa Wallack, who wrote the script for Mirror Mirror, was hired to write the adaptation in the following year in August.[22] Two months later it was confirmed that the film was indeed in the works at Illumination Entertainment.[23] Kealan O'Rourke was brought to rewrite the film's script.[24] By December 2016, Universal abandoned the project, and Dark Horse Entertainment and Amazon Studios were in negotiations to make an animated film.[25] In October 2024, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation and Bad Robot announced their collaboration on a full-length animated feature based on Emily the Strange. The film’s screenplay is being developed by Pamela Ribon, as Bad Robot will produce the film, with Reger serving as executive producer alongside Trevor Duke-Moretz.[26]
Flanimals	An animated feature film based on the book series was in production at Illumination by April 2009. Series creator Ricky Gervais was set to be the executive producer and also lend his voice to the lead character, while Matt Selman (The Simpsons) wrote the script,[27] but the project was later removed from the development schedule.[28]
Where's Waldo?	In June 2009, Universal and Illumination acquired the rights to turn Where's Waldo? into a live-action film, was to be produced by Chris Meledandri with Classic Media's (now DreamWorks Classics) executive producer Eric Ellenbogen,[29] but the project was later cancelled, after DreamWorks Animation bought Classic Media in 2012.[30]
Untitled cryptozoology film	In December 2009, Illumination was producing an animated film based on a pitch by actor-comedian Jack Black and Jason Micallef on cryptozoology, which is the study of legendary creatures whose existence has never been confirmed (i.e. the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot). Black intended to produce the film alongside Ben Cooley and Chris Meledandri through his production company Electric Dynamite. Additionally, Black did not intend to provide a voice for the characters as he did with DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda.[31]
Curious George	By July 2010, Illumination was developing a live-action animated film based on the titular monkey, with Larry Stuckey writing the script,[32] but in November 2015 the film project was cancelled.[33]
Pluto	In October 2010, Illumination Entertainment and Tezuka Productions jointly announced to develop a live-action/animated film of the Japanese manga series Pluto.[34]
The Addams Family	In 2010, Universal and Illumination acquired the underlying rights to the Addams Family drawings.[35] The film was planned to be a stop-motion animated film based on Charles Addams's original drawings. Tim Burton was set to co-write and co-produce the film, with a possibility to direct.[36] By July 2013, the film was cancelled; had been made, this would have been Illumination's first stop-motion animated film.[30] Eventually, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picked up rights to the film and an animated film was released in 2019, with Sausage Party directors Greg Tiernan and former DreamWorks Animation staff member Conrad Vernon to direct.[37] Universal handled the international distribution rights for the film, as well as physical home media worldwide distribution rights.
UglyDolls	In May 2011, Illumination acquired the rights to Uglydolls to make an animated feature film,[38] but the project never came to fruition. An animated film based on the toy series became the first family and animation project produced by STX Films[39] and was released in May 2019.[40]
Woody Woodpecker	By November 2011, Universal and Illumination planned a Woody Woodpecker feature film. John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky (King of the Hill) were in talks to develop a story,[41] but in July 2013, Illumination canceled the project.[42] The film was eventually released as a live-action/CGI hybrid film in 2017.
The Cat in the Hat	In March 2012, following the financial success of The Lorax, the animated film adaptation of the book of the same name, Universal and Illumination announced plans to produce an animated adaptation based on The Cat in the Hat.[43] Rob Lieber was set to write the script, with Chris Meledandri as producer, and Audrey Geisel as the executive producer, but the project never came into fruition.[44] By January 2018, Warner Animation Group (now Warner Bros. Pictures Animation) was in development of an animated Cat in the Hat film as part of a creative partnership with Seuss Enterprises, which is set to be released in 2026.[45]
Clifford the Big Red Dog	In May 2012, Universal and Illumination began to develop a live-action/animated feature film based on the eponymous book series. Matt Lopez was hired to write the script, while Chris Meledandri and Deborah Forte were attached to produce the film.[46] In July 2013, Illumination dropped the project.[30] Paramount Pictures later acquired the rights to develop the film, which was eventually released on November 10, 2021, following a number of delays due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[47][48][49]
Johnny Express	In 2015, Universal and Illumination planned to adapt the South Korean CGI animated short Johnny Express into a feature-length animated film.[50][51]

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Budget	North America		Overseas gross (unadjusted)	Worldwide gross (unadjusted)	Ref.
		Opening	Gross (unadjusted)
Despicable Me	$69 million	$56.3 million	$251.6 million	$291.6 million	$543.2 million	[52]
Hop	$63 million	$37.5 million	$108.5 million	$75.8 million	$184.4 million	[53]
The Lorax	$70 million	$70.2 million	$214.4 million	$134.8 million	$349.2 million	[54]
Despicable Me 2	$76 million	$83.5 million	$368.1 million	$602.7 million	$970.8 million	[55]
Minions	$74 million	$115.7 million	$336.0 million	$823.4 million	$1.159 billion	[56]
The Secret Life of Pets	$75 million	$104.4 million	$368.4 million	$525.9 million	$894.3 million	[57]
Sing		$35.2 million	$270.4 million	$363.8 million	$634.2 million	[58]
Despicable Me 3	$80 million	$72.4 million	$264.6 million	$770.2 million	$1.034 billion	[59]
The Grinch	$75 million	$67.6 million	$271.5 million	$255.4 million	$527.8 million	[60]
The Secret Life of Pets 2	$80 million	$46.7 million	$159.2 million	$287.2 million	$446.4 million	[61]
Sing 2	$85 million	$22.3 million	$162.8 million	$245.6 million	$408.4 million	[62]
Minions: The Rise of Gru	$80–100 million	$107.0 million	$370.3 million	$570.4 million	$940.7 million	[63][64][65]
The Super Mario Bros. Movie	$100 million	$146.4 million	$574.9 million	$785.9 million	$1.360 billion	[66]
Migration	$72 million	$12.5 million	$127.6 million	$172.7 million	$300.3 million	[67][68]
Despicable Me 4	$100 million	$75.0 million	$361.0 million	$610.5 million	$971.5 million	[69][70]

Critical and public response

Each film is linked to the "Critical response" section of its article.

Film	Critical		Public
	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	CinemaScore
Despicable Me	80% (201 reviews)[71]	72 (35 reviews)[72]	A[73]
Hop	24% (140 reviews)[74]	41 (23 reviews)[75]	A−[76]
The Lorax	53% (155 reviews)[77]	46 (30 reviews)[78]	A[79]
Despicable Me 2	75% (185 reviews)[80]	62 (39 reviews)[81]	A[73]
Minions	55% (222 reviews)[82]	56 (35 reviews)[83]	A[73]
The Secret Life of Pets	71% (239 reviews)[84]	61 (39 reviews)[85]	A−[86]
Sing	71% (187 reviews)[87]	59 (37 reviews)[88]	A[79]
Despicable Me 3	58% (195 reviews)[89]	49 (37 reviews)[90]	A–[73]
The Grinch	59% (197 reviews)[91]	51 (32 reviews)[92]	A−[93]
The Secret Life of Pets 2	60% (164 reviews)[94]	55 (26 reviews)[95]	A−[86]
Sing 2	72% (137 reviews)[96]	49 (28 reviews)[97]	A+[98]
Minions: The Rise of Gru	70% (185 reviews)[99]	56 (41 reviews)[100]	A[101]
The Super Mario Bros. Movie	59% (287 reviews)[102]	46 (53 reviews)[103]	A[104]
Migration	73% (103 reviews)[105]	56 (25 reviews)[106]	A[107]
Despicable Me 4	56% (164 reviews)[108]	52 (36 reviews)[109]	A[110]

See also

• List of Universal Pictures theatrical animated feature films
• List of DreamWorks Animation productions