Summary

  • Gru commands over 10,000 minions, but calculations suggest there could be 1.6 trillion minions in total.
  • The minions play a huge role in Despicable Me films, with some like Kevin, Bob, and Stuart taking the forefront.
  • Despite the exact number being uncertain, the minions will continue to be a fun and beloved part of Despicable Me 4.

The release of Despicable Me's villains. The amount of minions out there helping Gru, however, is debatable.

The amount of minions out there helping Gru, however, is debatable. Despite having their own Minions movies, the minions are still a massive part of the Despicable Me films as well. With that in mind, it's very easy to lose count of them. Their corresponding outfits and just the fact that there's so many really don't help either.

Minions from the Despicable Me franchise surrounded by falling money
Related
Despicable Me Detail Suggests A Very Different Minions Origin Than $1.1 Billion Movie Revealed

In light of Despicable Me 4, it's easy to forget that the original film in the franchise suggested a very different origin story for the Minions.

There Could Be Over 10,000 Minions

A Source Confirmed A Minion Count Greater Than 10 Thousand

In 2013, the Despicable Me Facebook page provided clarification on Gru's forces by finally confirming that Despicable Me and Minions movies alike. Some minions, like Kevin, Bob, and Stuart, take more of a role in the foreground, but others more or less stay quiet. It is also difficult to recognize individual minions as, apart from a few differences like eye and hair count, they look almost identical.

Are There Actually Over 1.6 Trillion Minions?

Some Calculated A Lot More Minions

Gru standing over minions as they look at him with iration

Even though Despicable Me's social media confirmed the 10,4000 minions count, not everyone is so convinced. A Redditor on a Reddit thread actually did the math and based their findings off the Despicable Me 2 poster that shows Gru standing in front of an army of minions. Their calculations suggest that there are 1,687,000,000,000 minions in total.

One can assume the height Gru is at is roughly 200km from the surface of the Earth (I made an overlay of this image on the Gru image, and it matched). Now, a rough estimate is that the poster has a 1/6th coverage of the entire circle that Gru can actually see, it brings his area seen to be 3.14*(r2). Radius can be calculated by the formula:

√(height above surface in cm)/6.752) = (Distance from horizon in km).

This brings r = 544 km.

Plugging it into the area formula, the visible area is 9.3*105 km2.

A minion's height is roughly twice its diameter (using this as reference), which puts its diameter at roughly 80 cm, with each one occupying an area of 5,024 cm2.

The highest circle packing efficiency is approximately 90.7%, which puts the effective area covered to be 8.435*1015 cm2.

This brings the total amount of minions that would be present to cover such a large area to be 1.687*1012.

The full math is quite complicated. It is safe to say, though, that the Redditor used real-life logic and applied it to the Despicable Me characters in order to calculate how many minions there could be. That said, the number is clearly greater than what the Despicable Me stated, hence why there's still a reasonable amount of certainty surrounding this subject. It may not be cleared up until it's directly addressed in one of the movies themselves.

All Feature Films in Despicable Me Universe

Year of Release

Despicable Me

2010

Despicable Me 2

2013

Minions

2015

Despicable Me 3

2017

Minions: The Rise of Gru

2022

Despicable Me 4

2024

Minions 3

Expected 2027

Whether there are over 10,000 minions or trillions of minions, it is a safe bet that Gru has way more minions than he could possibly need. The minions are not just having adventures with Gru, as they have movies of their own as well. However many minions there are, they can safely continue to be enjoyed along with other characters in Despicable Me 4.

Despicable Me 4 Poster showing Gru with his son and a Minon holding a gun

Your Rating

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Despicable Me 4
PG
Animation
Adventure
Comedy
6/10
5.5/10
Release Date
July 3, 2024
Runtime
95 Minutes
Director
Chris Renaud, Patrick Delage

Cast

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The infamous (and kind-hearted) not-super villain Gru returns in Despicable Me 4, the fourth entry in the long-running movie series from Illumination Entertainment. The fourth film also sees the return of Gru's wife, Lucy, portrayed again by Kristin Wiig, and introduces their son.

Franchise(s)
Despicable Me
Studio(s)
Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment
Main Genre
Animation