Illumination (company)
Illumination, formerly known as Illumination Entertainment, is an American animation studio founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007 and is a division of 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 best known for creating the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing franchises, as well as the adaptations of Dr. Seuss' books The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; and Nintendo video games, starting with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Minions, characters from the Despicable Me series, are the mascots of the studio.
Logo used since 2017 | |
| Formerly | Illumination Entertainment (2007–2017) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry |
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| Founded | January 17, 2007 |
| Founder | Chris Meledandri |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, California , U.S. |
Key people | |
Number of employees | 100 (2016) |
| Parent | Universal Pictures |
| Divisions |
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| Subsidiaries | Illumination Studios Paris |
| Website | Official website |
Illumination has produced 14 feature films, with an average gross of $711 million per film. The studio's highest-grossing films are The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.362 billion), Minions ($1.159 billion), and Despicable Me 3 ($1.034 billion), all of which are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, and eight of their films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films.