Minions & Monsters brings the Despicable Me franchise to seven movies, and the chronological order of those films looks nothing like the order in which they reached theaters. Illumination’s series jumps between decades on a regular basis, and its newest entry turns the clock back nearly a century.
Produced by Illumination for Universal, the franchise passed $5.6 billion at the global box office, which makes it the highest-grossing animated film series ever. Steve Carell’s Gru and his yellow henchmen kept that streak alive for 16 years.
The latest chapter arrived on July 1 and earned $14.2 million in the United States on day one, along with an A- CinemaScore from audiences. Critics gave it the best reviews in franchise history, a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the film already passed $62 million worldwide.
The new movie also happens to be the earliest stop on the timeline, at least as far as its main story goes. Below is the chronological order of all seven films, sorted by the time period where most of each story takes place.
Every Despicable Me and Minions Movie in Order
Minions & Monsters (1920s)
Release Date: July 1, 2026
Box Office: TBA
The seventh movie in the franchise doubles as the first chapter of its timeline. Minions & Monsters takes place in 1920s Hollywood, where a tribe of Minions on the hunt for a new evil boss stumbles into the silent film business and becomes an overnight sensation.
The fame does not last, though. Once sound arrives and the "talkies" take over, the Minions lose their careers because Minionese is the only language they speak. Two of them, James and Henry, refuse to give up on the movies and decide to make a monster picture of their own.
With the help of a spellbook and the squid-like Goomi, the pair summons real monsters instead of costumed actors. The biggest threat among them is Irene, a giant slime creature with an endless appetite, and the Minions must join the rest of Hollywood to stop her before she swallows the planet.
The film’s mid-credits scenes are worth noting for timeline purposes, since they jump ahead to the Gru era. One shows the Minions turning a young Gru’s pet dog into Kyle, while others rope in Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Dr. Nefario for quick gags that tie the prequel to the main Despicable Me films.
Minions (1968)
Release Date: July 10, 2015
Box Office: $1.1 billion
2015’s Minions covers more time than every other entry combined. The story opens at the dawn of life on Earth, where the little yellow creatures evolve from single-cell organisms and spend the following ages serving masters like dinosaurs and pharaohs.
Most of the film unfolds in 1968, when Kevin, Stuart, and Bob travel to Villain-Con and win jobs with Scarlet Overkill, the world’s first super-villainess. Her plan to steal the British crown turns the trio into fugitives, then into unlikely heroes.
The ending sets up everything that follows, as the tribe meets a young Gru and finds the evil boss it spent billions of years searching for. Minions also remains the biggest earner in the series.
Minions: The Rise of Gru (1976)
Release Date: July 1, 2022
Box Office: $940 Million
The timeline moves to 1976 in Minions: The Rise of Gru, which catches up with an 11-year-old Gru plotting a supervillain career from his suburban basement.
Gru interviews for a spot with the Vicious 6 after the group betrays its leader, Wild Knuckles. The meeting goes badly; Gru swipes a prized stone, known as the Zodiac Stone, from the team on his way out, and he soon winds up kidnapped. This predicament leaves Kevin, Stuart, and Bob to attempt a rescue with some hastily learned kung fu.
The movie explains how Gru and the Minions became a real team, bridging the gap between their first meeting in Minions and the adult criminal audiences met in 2010.
Despicable Me (2012)
Release Date: July 9, 2010
Box Office: $544 Million
The film that started it all in 2010 is only the fourth stop on the timeline. Despicable Me takes place around 2012, with a fully grown Gru chasing the biggest heist on record, stealing the moon itself.
A younger rival named Vector, voiced by Bill Hader, keeps beating him to the punch. Gru adopts three orphaned girls, Margo, Edith, and Agnes, as part of a scheme to sneak past Vector’s defenses, then slowly grows attached to them.
Gru pulls off the heist, but when Vector kidnaps the girls and demands the moon as ransom, he hands it over without a second thought. Fatherhood wins out over villainy, and that choice steers everything the franchise does afterward. The Gru we see in subsequent entries has a very different outlook on life.
Despicable Me 2 (2013)
Release Date: July 3, 2013
Box Office: $970 Million
Despicable Me 2 picks up roughly a year later in 2013, with Gru retired from crime and running a jelly business instead. The Anti-Villain League recruits him to track down a stolen mutagen and pairs him with agent Lucy Wilde, voiced by Kristen Wiig. Interestingly, Gru was not brought on board under the most conventional circumstances, as he was kidnapped by Wilde and eventually convinced to help AVL's cause.
Their investigation leads to El Macho, a supposedly dead supervillain who kidnaps Minions and uses the serum to turn them into purple monsters. Devastatingly, he does this with the help of Dr. Nefario, who left his role as his assistant to pursue villainy. Gru saves Lucy from a shark rocket loaded with TNT, and after 147 dates, the two marry, giving Margo, Edith, and Agnes a mother.
Despicable Me 3 (2017)
Release Date: June 30, 2017
Box Office: $1Billion
Despicable Me 3 lines up with its release year and moves the family’s story to 2017. Gru and Lucy lose their jobs at the Anti-Villain League after failing to catch Balthazar Bratt, a former ’80s child star turned criminal, voiced by Trey Parker. Gru then discovers a twin brother named Dru, a wealthy wannabe villain who nudges him toward one last score.
The brothers eventually join forces against Bratt, who kidnaps the girls and attacks Hollywood with a giant robot. The movie went on to become the second film in the franchise to cross $1 billion worldwide.
Despicable Me 4 (Late 2010s)
Release Date: July 3, 2024
Box Office: $972 Million
The franchise never states when Despicable Me 4 takes place, but the story follows soon after Despicable Me 3, which puts it somewhere in the late 2010s.
Gru and Lucy welcome a baby boy, Gru Jr., right as an old classmate named Maxime Le Mal, voiced by Will Ferrell, escapes prison and swears revenge. The family flees to a safe house under new identities, while a handful of Minions gain superpowers and become the AVL’s Mega Minions. Despicable Me 4 earned just over $970 million worldwide, and it stands as the final stop on the timeline until the franchise reveals where its story goes next.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
