Illumination (company)

Illumination (formerly known as Illumination Entertainment) is an American computer animation studio, founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007. Illumination is owned by Meledandri and the Illumination brand is co-owned by Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Meledandri produces the films, while Universal finances and distributes them. The studio is the creator of the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing franchises and the film adaptations of Dr. Seuss' books The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, as well as film adaptations of Nintendo video games starting with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Minions, characters from the Despicable Me series, are the mascots of the studio. Illumination has produced 13 feature films, with an average gross of

711.4 million per film. The studio's highest-grossing films are The Super Mario Bros. Movie (

1.339 billion), Minions (

1.159 billion), and Despicable Me 3 (

1.034 billion). All three films are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, and eight of their films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films. Meledandri left as President of 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios in early 2007. While at those companies he supervised or executive-produced movies including Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Robots, and Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!. After leaving, he founded Illumination Entertainment and a deal was announced positioning Illumination Entertainment as NBC Universal's family entertainment arm, that would produce one to two films a year starting in 2010. As part of the deal, Illumination retains creative control and Universal Pictures exclusively distributes the films. In 2011, Illumination acquired the animation department of the French animation and visual effects studio Mac Guff, which animated Despicable Me and Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, and formed Illumination Mac Guff (later Illumination Studios Paris). On August 22, 2016, NBCUniversal acquired competing studio DreamWorks Animation, which fueled speculation that Meledandri was to oversee both studios.

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Related concepts (5)

DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The studio has released a total of 46 feature films as of June 2023, 44 of which were theatrically released. Their catalogue includes several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release.

Illumination (company)

Comcast

Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings), incorporated and headquartered in Philadelphia, is the largest American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate. The corporation is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue (behind AT&T), and is also the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company, and largest home Internet service provider in the United States. Comcast is additionally the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider.