Some of the movies' biggest stars barely speak a word of English, or any other language for that matter. Sure, you can occasionally hear them say “Banana!” or possibly “Smoochy smoochy!" but most of what they say is gibberish. The Minions may be the world's most popular, and lucrative, foreign language movie stars — even if “Minionese” isn't an officially recognized language.
This summer, the goggle-wearing yellow ones will return yet again to further expand their sizable empire in “Minions: Rise of Gru" (in theaters July 1). The “Despicable Me” franchise (a fourth is due in 2024) and its “Minions” spinoffs already rank as the highest grossing animated film franchise ever with more than $3.7 billion in tickets sold worldwide.
