Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic caused movie theaters to close for months, studios have experimented with ways to release their blockbuster films in atypical ways. Now, Universal will be experimenting in a similar way with The Boss Baby: Family Business by releasing the film in theaters and on Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, on the same day.
The first Boss Baby film was a hit with family audiences upon its release in March 2017. The film that starred funnyman Alec Baldwin as a talking baby earned a total of $175 million at the domestic box office, spawning the successful Netflix series titled The Boss Baby: Back in Business shortly afterward. As it stands, The Boss Baby is one of Dreamworks Animation's most recognized properties around the world.
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Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney and Warner Bros. have been releasing select films simultaneously in theaters and on streaming (Disney Plus and HBO Max, respectively) due to the slow pace of the theatrical market's return to what it once was. Universal decided to sell Trolls: World Tour as a premium VOD release early in the quarantine process and now NBCUniversal has decided on a simultaneous theater/streaming release for Boss Baby 2, hoping to utilize Family Business to draw audiences to Peacock. This news follows the delay of the Boss Baby sequel from March 26, 2021, to mid-September 2021. The news also follows Universal's decision to remove The Office from Netflix and instead make it available for streaming on Peacock. This marks the first time Universal has attempted a simultaneous release of this magnitude with the streaming platform.
Peacock has been quietly amassing a slew of upcoming series to bolster its catalog. A mystery series titled Poker Face by Rian Johnson is set to release on the platform, as is a brand new comedy series uniting The Office star Craig Robinson with Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator Dan Goor. Other buzzworthy titles on Peacock include their revival of the classic sitcom Saved by the Bell as well as the modest comedy hit A.P. Bio.
The decision to release Family Business day-and-date represents a disappointing trend for recent feature animation, as many major studios have foregone pure theatrical releases in favor of hybrid or straight-to-streaming releases for such titles. Sony Pictures Animation has slated three of their 2021 releases—Vivo, Wish Dragon, and the smash hit The Mitchells vs. the Machines—for release on Netflix. Not only this, but Disney gave Raya and the Last Dragon a hybrid release and sidelined two of their original Pixar films, Soul and Luca (the latter due for release in June), by releasing them on Disney Plus for no additional charge. It is therefore upsetting that some of these films will not have a chance to be seen on the big screen by most audiences.
Thankfully, major studios haven't given up on animation's theatrical viability just yet. Sony Pictures will be releasing Hotel Transylvania: Transformania solely in theaters this July, while Universal has launched a noticeable marketing campaign for Spirit: Untamed, which is due for release in theaters on June 4th. In addition to these theatrical releases, Disney has yet to announce a release plan for the upcoming film Encanto, and it remains to be seen whether its release is hybrid or purely theatrical. And the surprise overperformance of Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train was likely hard not to notice. All of this evidence suggests that the financial viability of theatrical feature animation isn't down for the count just yet.
The Boss Baby: Family Business will release on September 17th, 2021.
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Source: NBCUniversal