After Minions & Monsters failed to impress studios at the box office, one Minions spin-off is shutting down. The product was one of the more popular offerings from the franchise, and its shutdown may or may not be linked to the disappointing ticket sales of the latest movie.
Minion Rush, a Despicable Me-themed endless runner, announced that it will be winding down service before shutting down all services. Through a social media post, the game revealed that it would not be releasing any new content starting October 30, 20206, and will end its online services by January 2027.
What does the studio behind Minion Rush say about the shutdown?
The studio opened a FAQ section on its website, where it explained that the game is being shut down. The official reason reads, “Since its release in 2013, Minion Rush has been enjoyed by a dedicated community, and we hope you had a lot of fun playing the game. Unfortunately, our run is indeed coming to an end. As the mobile gaming landscape continues to evolve, we have made the difficult decision to wind down our services on January 29, 2027.”
Now, it must be noted that Minions & Monsters was not a dud. Against its budget of $85 million, the movie brought in $524 million globally. While this puts the movie firmly into the success category, the movie did set a franchise low with its opening day collections. The movie was expected to bring $80 million domestically for the five-day Independence Day weekend. However, at the end of that time frame, it had only earned $62 million. This still made it the number 1 earner at the box office for the weekend, but did not meet the expectations set by the studio.
A number of things were speculated to have driven away ticket sales. These include competition from Disney’s Toy Story 5, the America 250 celebration, and most importantly, franchise fatigue for Despicable Me. This might also have contributed to the winding down of other spin-offs, such as Minion Rush.
