500 Million

Since we've been talking grosses (and millions), here's another number:

Despicable Me, the first film out of the gate for Universal Pictures and Chris Meledandri's Illumination Entertainment, will cross the $500 million worldwide gross mark [Saturday] ...

New players making animated features seem to be succeeding in the 21st century marketplace. (Some might not consider Chris Meledandri a "new player", since he was at Blue Sky and Fox Animation for years, but Universal certainly is. The last animated feature they released was "Curious George," which did $60 million domestically.)