Illumination’s founder and CEO, Chris Meledandri, has been nominated to join Nintendo as an Outside Director. The animation studio is currently collaborating with the world’s leading video game company on the highly anticipated upcoming Super Mario Bros. feature film.
Nintendo made the announcement in their fiscal year-end March 2021 report, and plans to appoint Meledandri as Outside Director at the company’s 81st annual general meeting of shareholders in June.
“We would like to nominate him as a new Outside Director with the expectation that he will appropriately supervise our company’s management from an objective perspective while providing valuable advice to our organization, based on his broad experience and insight gained as a leader in the field of entertainment,” the Nintendo report stated.
Meledandri is the creator of two of the world’s top three highest-grossing franchises: Despicable Me ($3.7 billion in worldwide box office across four films) and Ice Age ($3.2 billion across five films).
Illumination’s Highlight On Nintendo
Illumination’s Despicable Me was reportedly the most watched film on Netflix in 2020, and Illumination’s Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax were the second and ninth most watched films on the streaming service, respectively. Minions is the fourth highest-grossing animated film in history, grossing $1.159 billion worldwide, while Despicable Me 2 was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature in 2014. Minions: The Rise of Gru, the long-awaited next instalment in the series, will hit theatres on July 1, 2022.
Nintendo reported that its operating profit increased by 82 percent year on year to $5.9 billion, with net sales increasing by 34.4 percent to $16.1 billion.
