'Minions' grosses $1 bn globally

Universal-Illumination Entertainment's "Minions" has crossed the $1 billion milestone at the worldwide box office.

The animated comedy has minted $682 million internationally and $321.9 million in North America, making "Minions" the third highest grossing animated film of all time after "Frozen" and "Toy Story 3", reports variety.com.

Universal noted that the milestone also marks the first time any studio has had three films cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office in a single year. "Furious 7" grossed $1.512 billion and "Jurassic World" made $1.628 billion.

With "Minions", Illumination's five releases, including "Despicable Me," "Hop", "Dr. Seuss", "The Lorax" and "Despicable Me 2", have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide altogether.

"Minions" is also is the highest-grossing animated title in 11 territories, namely Hungary, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, Thailand, Ukraine, UAE and Vietnam; and Universal's highest-grossing film of all time in France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Slovakia.