Universal knows they struck gold with those mischievous yellow minions in Despicable Me, which is why they packed even more of them into last year's Despicable Me 2. The result was a whopping $935M worldwide (!!!), and an upcoming spinoff film appropriately titled Minions due out in 2015. So we already knew there would be a Despicable Me 3, only now we know when expect it.
Gru and the gang will return for Despicable Me 3 on June 30th 2017, so parents go ahead and mark your calendars. Universal revealed the date as part of a trio of announcements regarding their animation line with Illumination Studios. They also set their CG-animated remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas for November 17th 2017, and an untitled project written and directed by Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) for December 21st 2016. Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy will produce the Jennings film, which is vaguely described as an "original animated comedy event about courage, competition and carrying a tune". Yeah, okay.
So basically sequels and remakes rule the day over at Universal, which is frustrating but understandable. I'm interested in the Jennings project, just because of his history in the music video realm, but I have zero interest in another Grinch movie.
