Minions & Monsters locks in digital streaming premiere date

Something rather unexpected happened with Minions & Monsters this year, and it’s a bit of a head-scratcher. You’ve got this 1920s Hollywood-set prequel, where the little yellow mischief makers scuttle off to make a monster movie alongside actual monsters—so, business as usual, but with a silent era twist. Critics landed on the side of joy: it pulled in an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, which, to be blunt, puts every other Despicable Me or Minions film to shame. The punters who went seemed pleasantly surprised too. But—here’s the curveball—it’s also the lowest-grossing film in the entire franchise.

Minions & Monsters finished with $449 million worldwide, which lands it as the tenth-biggest movie of 2026 so far.

That’d be a lovely payday for most family animations, but if you’ve been watching what Illumination and Universal have churned out in this universe, you’ll know they usually bag almost double that as standard. Rise of Gru and Despicable Me 4 both nearly tipped a billion each, and you can see why $449 million feels a touch tepid by comparison. It’s not catastrophic thanks to that typically-Illumination approach of making the thing on the cheap; an $85 million budget is practically pocket change in the cartoon blockbuster club. That keeps the accountants smiling, anyway.

Release Details

If you missed it in cinemas (going by the numbers, statistically likely), Minions & Monsters is about to pop up everywhere else. The digital release lands on 11 August 2026, exactly six weeks after launch—pretty much par for Universal’s release cadence these days. For those who still like discs, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD editions arrive on 8 September. The home version comes stacked with over 45 minutes of extras, though before you get too giddy, a bit of this is exclusive to various retailers, so it pays to check the fine print on where you buy.

• 'Movie-Making Minions Style'—an interactive bit for kids showing them how to make their own monster flick, flavoured with sketches and flipbooks.
• 'How to Draw' with Nima Azarba—proper drawing lessons of the film’s Minions and monsters.
• 'How to Make Your Own Irene Blob Monster Slime'—featuring the slime influencer Snoopslimes, naturally, because why not.
• Traditional fare includes 'Minions Take on Hollywood,' casting featurettes, and 'Hollywood Sound,' with composer John Powell explaining how he built the score—a quirky footnote, since the franchise’s audio identity has rarely changed hands before.

There’s a bit of curiosity around the music: John Powell’s work marks a notable departure from the usual Despicable Me sound. Whether fans latch onto this version at home could say a lot about where the franchise dares to wander next.