Oct 11, 2019

"Adams Family" opens in the United States on poor reviews, decent box office forecasts

This year, Halloween is coming early to American moviegoers. MGM's cg reboot of The Addams Family hits screens today, opening in just over 4,000 theaters.

Industry analysts are broadly predicting a domestic opening weekend of $21–$27 million, with Box Office Mojo going as high as $29 million. With these figures, The Addams Family will be vying for second place with Ang Lee's Gemini Man, starring Will Smith. Joaquin Phoenix vehicle Joker, which is based on the DC Comics character, is expected to stay at the top in its second weekend.

At this rate, The Addams Family is heading for a solid debut. Even at the lower end of its range, it would open ahead of all original animated features released in the U.S. this year - the current record is held by Abominable, which bowed with $20.9 million last month.

But of course, The Addams Family is not an original story. It relocates Charles Addams's ghoulish characters to the present day, where they are confronted with the new horror that is 21st-century reality tv culture.

The franchise last came to the big screen in the 1990s, with two live-action features. The first opened domestically with $24 million and went on to take $192 million worldwide. The latest adaptation will have to work hard to match that, especially with Disney's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil poised to take much of its audience when it opens next week.

While MGM is handling North American distribution through its United Artists Releasing banner, Universal Pictures has the overseas rights. The film will be rolled out across dozens of territories between late October and early December.

Aside from franchise recognition, The Adams Family stands to benefit from a strong voice cast which includes Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Snoop Dogg. The directors are Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan, who also helmed Sausage Party. Pamela Pettler (Corpse Bride, 9, Monster House) wrote the screenplay, with revisions by Matt Lieberman (Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief, the upcoming Scoob!).

Vernon, Gail Berman, Alex Schwartz, and Alison O'Brien are producing, with Kevin Miserocchi, Andrew Mittman, and Joe Earley executive producing. Animation was handled by Cinesite's Vancouver studio - formerly Nitrogen Studios, where Sausage Party was made. The film is produced by MGM in association with Bron Creative, which struck a co-financing deal with MGM earlier this year.

This is the final incarnation of a long-gestating project. The Addams Family was first announced back in 2010, when Tim Burton was set to direct it as a stop-motion feature for Illumination Entertainment. After that collaboration fell through, Vernon was attached to a cg film in 2017, with Tiernan later joining as co-director.

Reviews so far have been poor - at the time of writing, the film has a 34% positive critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what the reviews say:

Variety's Owen Gleiberman was tepid:

Richard Roeper gave two stars out of four in The Chicago Sun-Times:

Kate Erbland in Indiewire points out the visual weaknesses in the adaptation of characters into cg:

NPR's Danny Hensel criticized the blandness of the film's visual environment:

In contrast, Yolanda Machado at The Wrap enjoyed the film: