Minions & Monsters (2026)

Minions and Monsters is the summer's most cheerfully uncomplicated film — and in a season that occasionally threatens to take itself too seriously, there is genuine value in a movie that exists purely to deliver maximum entertainment to its target audience. Directed by Pierre Coffin, the third Minions entry sends the yellow creatures to the 1920s, where they become enthralled with the golden age of monster cinema and accidentally release actual monsters in the process. The 1920s setting is the film's masterstroke. Coffin and his animation team gain an extraordinary visual palette — Art Deco architecture, Expressionist lighting, black-and-white-to-Technicolor contrast — that elevates the visual storytelling far beyond what any prior Minions film managed. The monsters voiced by Allison Janney (Vampire Queen), Christoph Waltz (Baron Grau), and Jeff Bridges (Frankenstein-esque Bouldie) are given more genuine character development than any human in the Despicable Me franchise. The Minion humor — slapstick, language-barrier comedy, the endless permutations of minion social dynamics — is in peak form. The film tracks for a $53-62 million domestic opening over July 4 weekend. This is not a film that will challenge anyone's conception of cinema — but it will make your children scream with delight for 95 uninterrupted minutes.