Which Despicable Me film first crossed $1 billion worldwide?

Minions was the first Despicable Me film to cross $1 billion worldwide.

Released in 2015, Minions is a prequel that explores the yellow characters’ history before they meet Gru. Its worldwide box-office total ultimately reached about $1.159 billion, making it the franchise’s first billion-dollar release.

The milestone arrived on August 28, 2015. At that point, Minions became only the third animated film to pass $1 billion worldwide, following Toy Story 3 and Frozen. Its performance reflected the characters’ popularity beyond the main Gru storyline and helped establish Minions as a major standalone brand.

Several alternatives are easy to confuse with the correct answer. Despicable Me 3 also exceeded $1 billion, but it came later, in 2017. Despicable Me 2 approached the milestone without crossing it, while Despicable Me 4 earned less than $1 billion according to the cited franchise figures. The first film in the series to reach the threshold was therefore the 2015 spin-off, not a numbered sequel.