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Hollywood’s Biggest Producer Considers Free Agency

Comcast/NBCUniversal’s deal with Despicable Me’s Chris Meledandri is up soon, and negotiations to re-sign him have begun in earnest. If he can’t find a way to capture more of the value he’s created, he and his Minions will explore their options elsewhere.

Chris Meledandri
Meledandri would be giving up a lot if he bailed, not to mention that Universal has done a great job distributing his films, deploying the I.P. across the NBCUniversal flywheel, and turning Illumination into a name brand nearly on par with Pixar. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Matthew Belloni
July 2, 2024

Even by today’s diminished standards, Chris Meledandri isn’t exactly the most dynamic figure in the entertainment industry. Low-key, dressed down, boring. He’s better over lunch—articulate, chatty, even a little gossipy—but if you told a random person that this is the most powerful producer in Hollywood, they’d probably wonder if they were instead looking at that producer’s accountant.