Netflix Loses One of 2024’s Biggest Movies To Another Streamer

December 29, 2025, 4:30pm

In the streaming era, we’re never quite sure where our favorite movies will wind up or how long they’ll be available on a given platform. The shifting landscape of streaming means that titles are constantly coming and going, and Netflix subscribers who have spent the past few months streaming a blockbuster 2024 movie that earned nearly $1 billion in theaters just lost it to a rival streaming platform.

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Despicable Me 4 was a massive hit when it debuted in theaters last year, and it continued that success with a chart-topping run on Netflix when it joined the platform back in February. Nearly a year later, the film disappeared from Netflix’s streaming library on December 28th only to reappear on Peacock that same day. The animated comedy marked the sixth film in the Despicable Me franchise and saw Steve Carell return as the voice of reformed supervillain and secret agent Gru, who is forced to uproot his family and Minions when his old rival Maxime Le Mal comes back for revenge.

Despicable Me 4 Pushed the Franchise to a New Record

Despicable Me 4 was met with mixed reviews from critics and is ultimately tied with Minions as the lowest-rated movie in the franchise with a 55% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but there’s no denying just how big of a movie it was. The film’s $972 million worldwide gross against its $100 million budget not only made it the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 2024 and proved animation’s strength that year alongside other box office winners like Inside Out 2 but also helped push the Despicable Me franchise past the $5 billion mark, making it the first animated franchise in history to reach that milestone.

The movie proved the franchise’s enduring power, and although it wasn’t the best received by critics, it’s still a solid entry into the Despicable Me series. The movie holds a much better reception among audience members with an 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the more streamlined story focusing on Gru and his new family providing the heartwarming moments and back-to-back laughs that have defined the franchise. The film also introduces some memorable new characters and relationship dynamics and is pretty entertaining for all ages, making it a great watch for the entire family.

Despicable Me 5 hasn’t been greenlit just yet, but the Despicable Me franchise isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Minions 3, a sequel to Minions: The Rise of Gru and a prequel to Despicable Me, is set to debut in theaters next year.

What’s New on Peacock?

Outside of Book Club: The Next Chapter and the Season 1 finale of Kimora: Back In The Fab Lane on December 30th, Despicable Me 4 is one of Peacock’s final additions of 2025. The film followed a rush of other new-to-Peacock titles throughout December, like The Addams Family, A Christmas Carol, The Martian, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The NBCUniversal streamer’s library will continue to grow in the new year, with everything from the How to Train Your Dragon franchise to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom set to arrive on January 1st.