Jack and Jim Presents: Billy and Max

Jack and Jim Presents: Billy and Max (also titled as Billy and Max) is a 2023 American traditional animated comedy film starring Nick Kroll and Will Ferrell voicing Billy and Max respectively, serving as a spin-off to the Jack and Jim universe, and directed by Walt Becker.

It is the first film in the franchise to be rated PG-13 by the MPA and DreamWorks Animation's first film to do so. The film was released on January 20, 2023 in standard and PLF formats where it received mixed reviews from critics who praised the campy tone and animation but criticized the screenplay and runtime, while calling it inferior to the main films.

Plot
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Cast
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Production
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Release
The film was released on January 20, 2023 in Dolby Cinema and PLF formats. It was originally intended to be a Peacock original until it was moved to theatrical by Universal due to their focus in theatrical releases.

In the United States, the film is rated PG-13 by the MPA for "violence, strong language, sexual content, and brief nudity", becoming the first film by DreamWorks Animation to do so.

Marketing
The teaser trailer for the film was released on July 6, 2022. Julia Alexander at The Verge described the premise of the film as presented by the trailer as "cheesy but enjoyable" while being similar to Cool Spot 2, while Matt Goldberg of Collider gave the trailer a more positive response by showing the more adult humor. Scott Mendelson, writing for Forbes, agreed with the similarities to Cool Spot 2 which he felt was a bad move by Universal although he stated that “they came out their comfort zone and could surprise” due to the recent success of Disney's more adult oriented animated films under 20th Century Studios, but cautioned that the Jack and Jim franchise may not have the same box office draw for general audiences that Cool Spot, Teenagers, and Daniel received due to coming off kid-friendly adaptations as opposed to be generally gearing towards adults.

Box office
As of January 23, 2023, Billy and Max has grossed $8.9 million in the United States and Canada.

Billy and Max was released alongside Missing and was initially projected to gross $10–15 million at 3,113 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.3 million on its opening day, including $1.1 million in Thursday previews. It later went on to gross $8.5 million in its opening weekend, the lowest grossing opening weekend in the franchise and slightly below expectations. Nonetheless, Universal CEO called the opening "great and good for counterprogramming."

Critical reception
On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, 49% of 385 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 59 critics, indicating "mixed to average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest in the franchise, while PostTrak reported 82% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 69% saying they would definitely recommend it.