Topples Shrek as highest grossing animated franchise of all time worldwide.
The Despicable Me franchise has soared past the Shrek series of films to become the highest grossing animated franchise of all time worldwide.
The series now stands at $3.528 billion globally. This compares with $3.51 billion globally for the Shrek portfolio of five films (including Puss In Boots).
Despicable Me’s total includes all three films, plus the Minions standalone movie from 2015.
According to Deadline, the first film – which was released in 2010 – earned $546m (£418m), while its Oscar-nominated sequel from 2013 notched up $607.7m (£465.6m) taking the global haul to $976m (£748m).
Minions became the biggest animated film of last year, while Despicable Me 3 has outdone the previous two films with worldwide takings of $879.5 (£674m).
Making up the top five are the Ice Age series, followed by Madagascar and Toy Story.
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