Chris Meledandri
Box Office: ‘Despicable Me 4’ Heads for Sparkly $120M July 4 Opening, ‘Inside Out 2’ Crosses $500M in U.S.
Gru and his mischievous minions are hoping to fulfill their patriotic duty and once again set off major fireworks at the Fourth of July box office. Illumination and Universal’s Despicable Me 4, which opened Wednesday in theaters across the U.S., posted an opening day gross of $27 million for an estimated five-day holiday debut of […]
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Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks Lead Illumination’s ‘Migration’ Voice Cast
Minions studio Illumination Entertainment and Universal announced the flock of voice actors that star in its Dec. 22 release Migration, an animated adventure that follows a family of talking ducks as they set off on a journey. The voice cast is led by Kumail Nanjiani as anxious Mallard dad Mack and Elizabeth Banks as Pam, the Mallards’ daring, quick-witted […]
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Universal Movie Chief Donna Langley Celebrates ‘Super Mario Bros.,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ at CinemaCon
The astonishing box office success of Universal and Illumination’s The Super Movie Bros. has infused this year’s CinemaCon with a sense of optimism among cinema operators still struggling to recover fully from the pandemic. So it was no surprise when Donna Langley, chair of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, received a resounding round of applause, plus […]
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Illumination’s Chris Meledandri to Receive CinemaCon’s Award of Excellence in Animation
The good news keeps coming in the Super Mario Bros. world. Chris Meledandri, founder and CEO of Illumination Entertainment, which partnered with Nintendo on The Super Mario Bros. Movie that continues to break records left and right as it barrels toward $1 billion at the box office, will receive this year’s CinemaCon Award of Excellence in […]
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Box Office: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ to Find Oodles of Easter Eggs, Ben Affleck’s ‘Air’ Joins Hunt
Expect the box office to be in full bloom this weekend. Illumination and Universal’s Nintendo video game adaptation The Super Mario Bros. Movie has every chance of becoming the first blockbuster of 2023, if tracking is any indication. Not only is the PG pic whipping up interest among families, it is appealing to the generations […]
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Brian Selznick Book ‘Big Tree,’ Inspired by a Steven Spielberg and Chris Meledandri Idea, Set For Publication in 2023
Big Tree, an illustrated novel by Brian Selznick that began as an original idea from Steven Spielberg with Illumination Entertainment founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, will be published by Scholastic on April 4, 2023. Meledandri’s Illumination animation studio, which will next release Minions: The Rise of Gru on July 1, will own the film rights […]
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Illumination’s Chris Meledandri to Be Honored by Visual Effects Society
Chris Meledandri — the CEO of Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind the pill-shaped Minions — will receive the Visual Effects Society's lifetime achievement award during the 17th VES Awards on Feb. 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
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Box Office: ‘Despicable Me 3’ Crosses the $1B Mark
Collectively, the four movies in the 'Despicable Me' series have made it the biggest animated franchise of all time.
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Illumination’s Chris Meledandri Talks Success Secrets, Rumors He’ll Head DreamWorks
As the man behind those secretive pets, chattering minions and the villainous Gru, THR's Animation Producer of the Year has made Illumination Entertainment — next up with 'Sing' — a major player in less than a decade.
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Animation World Reacts to NBCUniversal’s DreamWorks Acquisition: New Industry “Super Player”
The FMX convention in Stuttgart, Germany was abuzz with the news of Universal's DWA acquisition as attendees praised Jeffrey Katzenberg and expressed confidence in Chris Meledandri's ability to lead the animation studio into the future.
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Roundtable: 5 Top Animators on the Good and Bad of Celebrity Voices and Creative Input From Their Own Kids
The masterminds behind "Frozen," "Despicable Me 2," "Monsters University," "The Croods" and "Epic" on how star voices are great for marketing a film, but creatively, the character comes first -- and how the director's son saved the "Avatar"-like look of "Epic."
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‘Despicable Me 2’s’ Mastermind: My Dad Was a Disruptor, Too
Chris Meledandri, whose sequel grossed almost $1 billion, recalls his fashion-designer father bringing Italian-style clothes to big cities: "If you were dressing in his clothes in New York or California, you were breaking a rule."
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