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If you ever needed proof that people are excited about Gru’s impending return to cinemas, look no further than the weekly Netflix charts for the last week. Not only has the reformed villain’s most recent outing become the most viewed film on the streaming service, but the Netflix top ten is littered with the rest of the Despicable Me franchise.

As fans eagerly await Despicable Me 4’s Summer 2024 release date, they are catching up on Gru’s previous adventures on Netflix. Of the top six most viewed English language films on the site, four of them are from the Despicable Me franchise. Of the entire series, only Minions: The Rise of Gru is missing from the charts, with fans spending a total of 64.8 million hours watching the Despicable Me movies in the past week. That is a lot of gibberish-spouting manic Minions on screens around the world.

It isn’t unusual for a series to get renewed interest when a new entry is about to be released, but Despicable Me 4 isn’t due to hit cinemas until July 3, 2024. That means that this resurgence in the franchise seems to have stemmed from just a new trailer dropping last month. While people’s opinions of the Despicable Me and Minions films vary greatly, their success at the box office is impossible to ignore. The franchise has made more than $4 billion in ticket sales over the years, making it one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time. They are essentially an excuse for Illumination Studios to print money, so we can’t see them stopping anytime soon.

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