Only 49 movies have ever made over $1 billion at the global box office. It’s a lot of Marvel, and Star Wars, and Jurassic World, and James Cameron, but between Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War at #22, there sits Minions. Rightly so: Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are banana- and fart-loving icons, and deserve to be treated as such. It’s unlikely that the sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru, will cross the $1 billion mark (only one movie, the MCU’s monstrous Spider-Man: No Way Home, has joined the club since the start of the pandemic), but don’t be surprised if it’s another huge hit for Illumination.
Minions: The Rise of Gru follows Despicable Me evil mastermind Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) as a 12-year-old boy growing up in “1970s suburbia, plotting to take over the world from his basement,” according to the official plot description. His chaos is not going well until he “crosses paths with the Minions, including Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto, a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please… Together, they build their first lair, design their first weapons, and strive to execute their first missions.”
The Rise of Gru also introduces the Vicious 6, a supervillain supergroup made up Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), Jean Clawed (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Nunchuck (Lucy Lawless), Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren), Stronghold (Danny Trejo), and Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin) — until he gets ousted by the other members. That’s when Gru, a Vicious 6 fanboy, interviews to join the club, but he’s rejected. Here’s more:
The Vicious 6 is not impressed by the diminutive, wannabe villain, but then Gru outsmarts (and enrages) them, and he finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. With Gru on the run, the Minions attempt to master the art of kung fu to save him, and Gru discovers that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.
Also, the Minions fly a plane and get sucked into a toilet. That’s the good stuff. Minions: The Rise of Gru comes out on July 1.