The $5.4 billion animated franchise takes a risk

The next installment in the Despicable Me franchise , Minions & Monsters, has been confirmed to have a PG rating, but with some caveats that push the boundaries of what a PG movie can get away with. According to Film Ratings, the MPA has officially rated Minions & Monsters PG, but with a huge difference compared to its other movies.

The seventh overall movie in the franchise, the story of Minions & Monsters follows the Minions in the 1920s, having written a monster movie for Hollywood and wanting to produce it using real monsters. This sends them on a quest to find real monsters hidden throuhout the world, leading to a plethora of chaotic events.

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Universal's $5.4 billion animated franchise is testing the limits of a PG rating, just one month ahead of its wide theatrical release. Minions & Monsters, the next installment in the Despicable Me fraanchise, has had its rating confirmed, but with a huge difference compared to its other movies.

The trailers for the movie don't seem to give this away, as the Minions are up to their usual comediic shenanigans without many dark elements directly in the promotional material. Minions & Monsters will be Illumination's second major release of 2026.

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According to the rating, the movie is PG for violence/action, language,and rude/macabre humor. This makes it the first movie under the Minions umbrella to be rated PG for language, a rather uncommon occurrence in movies aimed at children.

It's also the first to include macabre humor as part of its rating, indicating some more grim jokes in contrast to other installments. This makes Minions & Monsters the first entry out of every Despicable Me movie to feature any form of language rating from the MPA.

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The movie is going to include a few darker elements than the franchise is known for. The first was the financially successful but critically panned Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which has made $994.7 million at the worldwide box office as of writing.

Each Minions movie has been a smash hit, too: 2015's Minions earned $1.159 billion, while Minions: The Rise of Gru saw a $940.2 million box office haul. The third movie seems poised to perform similarly, even with the PG rating confirming some darker elements in the film.