Kevin, Stuart, and Bob reach New York City in 1968 in the film Minions.
The date places their journey during the late 1960s, when the three leave the Minions’ cave to search for a new boss. They arrive in New York City and spend the night in a department store, where they see a hidden television commercial promoting Villain-Con.
Villain-Con is a convention for villains held in Orlando. The Minions travel there by hitchhiking with the Nelson family, a household of thieves. At the convention, they meet Scarlet Overkill, who hires them and takes them to London.
The 1968 setting is a deliberate historical backdrop for the film’s prequel story. It allows the Minions to encounter period details before they become connected with Scarlet, Herb Overkill, and eventually a young Gru. The year is easy to confuse with 1969 because the Apollo 11 moon landing occurred then, but the film explicitly places the New York journey in 1968.