Where Have All the Kids Flicks Gone?
Sung to the tune of Paula Cole’s 1996 classic, the “only game in town” natures of ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘Minecraft’ are the result of a multi-decade process leading to a lack of “just for kids" flicks.
Lilo & Stitch earned another $10 million on its sixth day of domestic release, bringing its North American total to $207 million as its global total reached $421 million. With a likely end-of-Sunday cume over $570 million worldwide, it is currently the third-biggest global grosser of the year, behind China’s animated Ne Zha 2 ($2.2 billion, most of that of course from China) and WBD and Legendary’s A Minecraft Movie ($941 million). While technically aimed at all demographics and, in some cases, appealing to nostalgia among older moviegoers, they are first and foremost “kid flicks.”
Disney’s Lilo & Stitch was the first big kid flick since Minecraft six weeks earlier. Warner Bros. Discovery and Legendary’s Minecraft was the first kid-friendly biggie (that kids wanted to see) since Universal and DreamWorks’ Dog Man in late January. A portion of the online discourse has correctly focused on how both A Minecraft Movie and Lilo & Stitch exceeded optimistic expectations and/or stuck around (as did Dog Man), partially due to parents seeking something, anything, to take their kids to. Without getting into the bad-faith discourse surrounding this simple idea, it’s not a new problem.
DreamWorks’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish soared to $187 million from a $19 million Wed-Sun Christmas 2022 debut amid an early-2023 marketplace largely devoid of kid-friendly theatricals. Disney’s Frozen legged out to $400 million domestic from a $94 million Wed-Sun Thanksgiving weekend launch. Beyond quality and pop culture impact, Frozen benefited from a near-total lack of kid-friendly biggies, with the Christmas season offering PG-rated, melancholy adult dramas like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Saving Mr. Banks alongside the PG-13, carnage-filled Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, between November 2013 and The LEGO Movie in February 2014.
Circumstances like those in the December 2013/January 2014 marketplace were once somewhat unique. However, decades of concurrent and/or consecutive circumstances have combined to create a new normal. Noting the much-asked “Where did all the kid flicks go?” question, it’s a two-pronged question that first must explain what happened to live-action kid films and then why animated flicks became so rare. Following decades of “all-quadrant” tentpoles and a decade’s worth of corporate consolidation amid a streaming war and a global pandemic, fewer major distributors are releasing theatrical animated films, and even fewer are operating in the live-action kid-flick space.