Steve Carell has been a part of many iconic comedy films. However, his voice acting in the globally renowned Despicable Me franchise added new plaudits to the acclaimed star’s career. The franchise features Carell as the voice of Felonious Gru, a supervillain who undergoes reformation after adopting three orphan girls.
Ahead of the release of the franchise’s next entry, the Despicable Me movies seem to have captivated audiences on their streaming home, Netflix. The films blasted into Netflix’s global top ten in February 2024 and continue to perform strongly, gathering millions of views in the process. Here is how the Steve Carell-led $4.6 billion franchise is killing it on Netflix.
Steve Carell’s Despicable Me Franchise Dominates Netflix Charts With 12 Million Views
Despicable Me is one of the most popular animated film franchises, with most of the entries earning critical and commercial success. The three mainline movies and two Minions spin-off movies all feature Steve Carell as the voice of Gru. They have grossed roughly $4.6 billion at the global box office. Most of the franchise’s films are available to stream on Netflix.
Netflix recently released its list of the top 10 most streamed movies on the service globally for the week of February 19 to February 25, 2024. The list features Despicable Me 3 in the third spot, followed by Minions in the sixth spot. Both movies had a combined 17, 900 hours of streaming, leading to roughly 11.8 million views in that week.
The strong performance of the two movies comes a week after nearly the entire franchise took over the Netflix top 10 during the week of February 12 to February 18, 2024. During this time, Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Despicable Me 3, and Minions all featured in the top 10, and gathered roughly 28.4 million views.
Despicable Me 2 spent thirteen weeks in the top 10 and Despicable Me spent six weeks before bowing out in the most recent week. Despicable Me 3 is in its third week in the top 10 while Minions is in its sixth week. All movies in the franchise appeared in the Netflix top 10 of most streamed movies from February 5, 2024, except Minions: The Rise of Gru, which is not available on the platform.
Steve Carell’s Despicable Me 4 Set to Release Later This Year
The recent success of the Despicable Me franchise on Netflix can be attributed to the impending release of the upcoming fourth main-line installment in the hit animated franchise. Despicable Me 4, which continues the main series of movies, is slated to be released on July 3, 2024.
Steve Carell is set to reprise his voice role as Felonious Gru for the fourth installment. He will be joined by Kristen Wiig as the voice of Gru’s wife, Lucy Wilde. The voice cast also includes the return of Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Madison Polan as Gru’s adopted daughters, while Pierre Coffin voices the Minions.
Will Ferrell joins the franchise as Maxime Le Mal, a supervillain seeking revenge on Gru, while Sofía Vergara voices Valentina, Le Mal’s girlfriend. Despicable Me 4 is being directed by Chris Renaud, with Patrick Delage serving as a co-director.
The first three Despicable Me movies and Minions are streaming on Netflix while Minions: The Rise of Gru is available on Peacock.
