In the mood for more animal American Idol? Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment confirm Sing 2.
After rocking the U.S. box office with over $250 million earned domestically so far, Sing will have a sequel. Yesterday, Universal Pictures and Illumination announced that the sequel will land on Christmas Day 2020.
In the original, a group of animals enter a singing competition (think: American Idol) hosted by Koala Buster Moon. Written and directed by Garth Jennings, the original features a star-studded voice cast. Matthew McCounaughey voices Buster Moon, hoping to save his late father’s financially strapped theater. Reese Witherspoon, Seth McFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Rilley, and singer Tori Kelly also lend their voices. Sing has also brought in $179 million internationally, earning nearly $430 million worldwide against a $75 million budget.
Sing scored a solid 71% fresh rating on American TV and film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The critics consensus reads,
“Sing delivers colorfully animated, cheerfully undemanding entertainment with a solid voice cast and a warm-hearted — albeit familiar — storyline that lives up to its title.”
Along with very healthy box office numbers, Sing has also earned two Golden Globe Awards nominations. So far, no other movie is set to open during that same Christmas weekend in 2020.
Sing’s success follows Illumination Entertainment’s recent box office hits. Minions, based off of Despicable Me’s former-villain Gru’s henchmen, has earned over $1.1 billion worldwide. The Secret Life of Pets has also earned $875 million. The first Despicable Me earned $543 million worldwide, with the follow-up earning nearly double the amount of the first.
Along with the news of a Sing sequel, Universal Pictures and Illumination also announced Minions 2 will see an earlier release date. Minions 2 will hit theatres on July 3, 2020. The Secret Life of Pets 2 also faced a serious delay, pushed back a year from July 13, 2018 to July 3, 2019.