Which company produces the Despicable Me franchise?

Illumination produces the Despicable Me franchise.

The studio was founded by producer Chris Meledandri in 2007 and developed Despicable Me as its first feature film. The original movie premiered in 2010, introducing Gru, his adopted daughters and the Minions. Illumination has since produced the sequels, Minions spin-offs and related short-form projects.

Universal Pictures is closely associated with the franchise because it distributes the films and owns the broader corporate relationship through NBCUniversal. That makes Universal a frequent answer to questions about the franchise’s distributor, but it is not the production studio asked for here. The other options are separate animation companies: Pixar is part of Disney, DreamWorks Animation is associated with Universal’s rival DreamWorks, and Blue Sky Studios was formerly part of 20th Century Fox.