The curious case of the lost Family Movie

[Poseidon]

This is something that just bugs me. Kids are the future of moviegoing, but in 2023, the schedule asks some tough questions of families.

The first movie for families opens in April. Yeah, you heard right. The whole first quarter of the year is a complete loss for studios.

Unortunantely, as the year moves on, it doesn't get better. There is a real lack of movies and when there are some, they come in pairs. It's actually quite unbelievable.

 

How could Hollywood let those audiences go without a fight? First it was women, now it looks like families are next. 

 

Those are the currently planned releases for 2023:

April 2nd Super Mario Bros

 

May 26th The Little Mermaid

(June 2nd Spider Man into the Spider Verse 2) I wasn't sure if I should count this one as a classic family movie. 

 

June 16th Elemental

 

June 30th Harold and the Purple Crayon

 

July 28th Haunted Mansion

Aug 4th Teenage Mutant Ninja Turnles

 

Sep 29th Paw Patrol

 

Nov 17th Trolls 3

Nov 24th Wish

 

Dec 15th Wonka

Dec 22nd Migation

 

 

And that's it. 11 movies the whole year. Nothing in October, a month that proved like a good date for Animation before Covic came, nothing round President's Day. 

Before the Pandemic, Family Movies made up for about 1/5th of the Top 100. And keep in mind, that it's even more in admissions due to lower ticket prices. 

 

I just hope, this is not how it's going to be from now on. If kids don't get used to go to the movies from early on, they won't come as adults. It's as simple as that. 

[Poseidon]

Universal dated a surprise-opening in June with an original animation movie: "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken"

Opening it against Harold probably means that one will be moved to another date.

 

Starting the marketing campaign 3 months before the movie opens is quite unique for such a former big player. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Poseidon

[MightyDargon]

Would YOU want to pit your kids' movie against Mario?

[Poseidon]

23 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

Would YOU want to pit your kids' movie against Mario?

 

Why would you ask that question? Who said something should have opened against Mario? 

[poweranimals]

Shazam is a family movie.

[grey ghost]

Little Mermaid would've done well in March like Beauty and the Beast.

 

I don't know if that was an option though with post-production time constraints.

[Hiccup23]

I think we are still adjusting from the pandemic.

 

Look at last year: Sonic 2 was the first family film of the year and it came out April 8th. Sing 2 was the only family film holdover from 2021 and made $86.3M in 2022. 

 

This year, Puss in Boots 2 made $127M in 2023. Mario is coming out at the same time as Sonic 2 did and will easily out-gross Sonic 2.  If anything it is finally adjusting back to normal. I think studios want to see the family demand in January-March before dropping films in that timeframe. Puss in Boots 2 success shows there is that demand. 

 

Also let's not ignore Avatar 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which while not family films, do attract families. 

[Eric Atreides]

There was a great article from Matt Singer about this a day ago.

 

https://screencrush.com/no-kids-movies-in-theaters/

 

It's a bad combination of both the homogeny of the current theatrical landscape where everything is just a 4-quad PG-13 VFX-fest/nostalgic toy commercial, which ironically alienates a large audience sector, and most animated movies/live-action fare for younger kids is now being relegated to streaming services. And even what few options there are get crammed into the summer in the hopes to maximize revenue, which is just...stupid. Something like Ruby Gillman or Elemental could have easily been plopped into February and March and stand out way more compared to all the intense summer competition, but nope. It'll only make studios more scared and just make the same damn movie over and over and over and over again...which has already happened. Oh well.

[AniNate]

I definitely think there was still some covid-driven apprehension this season, wasn't really until Puss in Boots that it was clear that animated movies still had a theatrical audience. Disney also would normally have some kind of big budget IP remake in March but they completely skipped the month this year. Next March however looks overstuffed with kids fare right now.

[YM!]

1 hour ago, Eric Batson said:

There was a great article from Matt Singer about this a day ago.

 

https://screencrush.com/no-kids-movies-in-theaters/

 

It's a bad combination of both the homogeny of the current theatrical landscape where everything is just a 4-quad PG-13 VFX-fest/nostalgic toy commercial, which ironically alienates a large audience sector, and most animated movies/live-action fare for younger kids is now being relegated to streaming services. And even what few options there are get crammed into the summer in the hopes to maximize revenue, which is just...stupid. Something like Ruby Gillman or Elemental could have easily been plopped into February and March and stand out way more compared to all the intense summer competition, but nope. It'll only make studios more scared and just make the same damn movie over and over and over and over again...which has already happened. Oh well.

On the bright side next February-March looks packed kids film wise (Toto, Elio, KFP4, Snow White and SpiderVerse).

[scytheavatar]

Let's not sugar coat it, if you are a parent who is willing to subject your child to Lightyear, then you are a complete failure as a parent. Why would parents want to bring their child to the theatres when the family movies freaking suck? When something decent like Super Mario pop out, then the families will show up.

[Poseidon]

On 3/21/2023 at 6:32 PM, poweranimals said:

Shazam is a family movie.

It's PG-13.

 

I wouldn't take a 6 year old to watch such a movie.

[Poseidon]

On 3/21/2023 at 7:55 PM, Hiccup23 said:

I think we are still adjusting from the pandemic.

 

Look at last year: Sonic 2 was the first family film of the year and it came out April 8th. Sing 2 was the only family film holdover from 2021 and made $86.3M in 2022. 

 

This year, Puss in Boots 2 made $127M in 2023. Mario is coming out at the same time as Sonic 2 did and will easily out-gross Sonic 2.  If anything it is finally adjusting back to normal. I think studios want to see the family demand in January-March before dropping films in that timeframe. Puss in Boots 2 success shows there is that demand. 

 

Also let's not ignore Avatar 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home, which while not family films, do attract families. 

 

Of course we are adjusting. but on the other hand, there are still some high profile movie going to Netflix. Sony Animation missed out on 4 movies via netflix and now has only the two Spider-Verse movies scheduled for the next 2 years.

[Sophie]

On 3/21/2023 at 11:57 AM, Eric Wick said:

the current theatrical landscape where everything is just a 4-quad PG-13 VFX-fest/nostalgic toy commercial,

 

How are there people like this in a box office forum? Shouldn't anybody posting here be aware of movies like Creed, Scream VI, Cocaine Bear, etc coming out constantly to huge success? 

 

Or do they just not count because they aren't one of the few films per year that crack half a billion? In which case, you're just complaining that the very biggest and most expensive movies of the year happen to be those with 4 quad appeal (no duh). 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Sophie

[dudalb]

3 hours ago, Poseidon said:

It's PG-13.

 

I wouldn't take a 6 year old to watch such a movie.

The languag gets pretty rough, and some of the vioilence take it to the dege of being an R. Not a kid friendly movie, IMHO.

[dudalb]

3 hours ago, Poseidon said:

It's PG-13.

 

I wouldn't take a 6 year old to watch such a movie.

The language gets pretty rough, and some of the vioilence take it to the edge of being an R. Not a kid friendly movie, IMHO. Just because kids are charecters does not make it child friendly.

[excel1]

People would feel differently if Chapek had just released Red into theaters.

[BadOlCatSylvester]

Well, these past couple years show that families don't really go see kids movies anymore. Minions 2 and Sonic 2 were hits, but they were both outliers propped up by unique factors, with the former being saved by TikTok while the latter is based on a property with a big adult fan following. So it is understandable why the industry is cutting down on animation overall, not just family movies. I have a hunch Spider-Verse 2 will be the biggest toon of this year because of its Marvel and Spider-Man connection.

[filmlover]

The Little Mermaid/Spider-Man/Elemental/Ruby Gillman pileup over a 6 week span is definitely because studios want those summer weekdays when kids have extended off time from school. The former two are certain to play much more broadly than the others as obvious 4-quad blockbusters, so it doesn't seem impossible that all of these can co-exist just fine, though there's also Transformers/The Flash/Indiana Jones in the equation as PG-13 tentpoles that will be aiming for some family dollars as well. It still remains crazy to me just how crowded this summer is while September and October remain largely barren-looking, and I doubt anything moves at this point since their marketing campaigns seem locked in.

Edited March 23, 2023 by filmlover

[YM!]

10 hours ago, excel1 said:

People would feel differently if Chapek had just released Red into theaters.

Agreed. It may not have been able to replicate Pixar’s biggest but could've easily pulled 150m+ domestic. Everything else that year flopped because they were too kiddy (Lyle), looked like it's been done before (Super Pets), or had streaming ruin the brand or just being shit movies (Lightyear and Strange World).

 

Puss 2 just did a 180m+/480m run a few months ago. Yes it was great and one could argue nostalgia helped but you don't get that big without kids connecting to it. The biggest mistake Chapek did was sending the Pixar stuff to the Plus because it fucked over both brands by training families to wait for plus. I think Elemental and Wish if very great can turn it around in time for 2024.