During the park scene in the beginning Gru from Despicable Me (2010) is seen walking his dog Kyle in the background.
The first film to open over $100 million in the United States that is not a sequel nor based on previously published material.
The leader of the Flushed Pets is named Snowball. The Flushed Pets hate humans because of past mistreatment. In George Orwell's Animal Farm, Snowball is one of the two pigs who lead the revolution on the farm against humans who have mistreated animals.
Snowball's (Kevin Hart) emotional reference to "Ricky" ("who didn't make it") is an allusion to Boyz n the Hood (1991). Hart's character in Get Hard (2015) makes a similar reference to the same movie.