Illumination has made some classic kids films including Despicable Me, Sing, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and more recently, Migration. However, they still have their sights set on Disney and Pixar.
Wanting to be as big as Disney
In an interview with Cartoon Brew, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri talked about the studio's goals. He would like to see the company become a household name familiar like Disney, Pixar, and even Studio Ghibli.
“I think we're about at the halfway mark of developing the Illumination brand,” he revealed .”It's not yet at a place where it can change the fate of a movie in any way, shape, or form. We're roughly at levels that are about half of what Disney and Pixar are at. Which, to me, is a huge accomplishment because we're vastly younger and have only made a fraction of the movies of Disney.”
And he's got a point. To date, the studio has only released a dozen films with their thirteenth, Migration, coming out this week.
Across its feature films, Illumination's films have grossed over $9.4 billion. While The Super Mario Bros. Movie's $1.3 billion gross — the second-highest of the year behind Barbie — surely helps, most of their films have been successful. Despicable Me 3 and Minions both made over $1 billion, with Minions: The Rise of Gru, nearly hitting the billion dollar mark last year.
With a fourth entry in the Despicable Me series coming next year and Migration coming out this week, the studio will hope to top $10 billion overall.
Migration was written by the White Lotus creator Mike White. The film follows a family of mallards who attempt to convince their father to migrate to Jamaica.
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