The coronavirus pandemic shelves yet another major movie release, with Universal Pictures pulling Illumination Entertainment’s family animation sequel Minions: The Rise of Gru from its summer dates. The movie was set for June release in some offshore markets and for 3 July release in the U.S. Illumination’s Mac Guff studio in Paris has been temporarily shuttered in abidance with the current lockdown in France.
Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri said, “In response to the severity of the situation in France, we are temporarily closing our Illumination Mac Guff studio in Paris. With this decision we are abiding by the French Government’s guidelines and doing everything possible to slow the spread of the virus as we care for our artists and their families. This means we will be unable to finish Minions: The Rise Of Gru in time for our planned global releases in late June and early July. While we all grapple with the enormity of this crisis, we must put the safety and protection of our employees above all. We look forward to finding a new release date for the return of Gru and the Minions.”
In 2017, the series of Illumination Despicable Me movies all told became the top grossing animated film franchise ever worldwide. A new release date for Minions: The Rise Of Gru is yet to be fixed.
