Early 'The Teenagers Movie' Box Office Projections Lower Than Daniel 6

Screenrant

With expectations set high as Daniel's Big Return being the highest grossing animated TV show adaptation domestically with Daniel: Bigger, Badder, and Meaner becoming the highest grossing animated adaptation worldwide, The Teenagers Movie is projected to fall short of breaking that record.

Early The Teenagers Movie box office projections are predicting lower numbers than the last two Daniel movies. In 2018, 20th Century/Columbia's Daniel's Big Return grossed $405 million at the domestic box office, blowing away expectations and setting records while last year's Daniel: Bigger, Badder, and Meaner slightly grossed less domestically with $364 million but soared worldwide with over $920 million. Their respective domestic grosses made them one of the the highest-grossing films of 2018 and 2021, and Big Return set a milestone as the highest grossing TV show adaptation with $890 million worldwide until it's sequel broke that barrier even more with $920 million worldwide.

2022 has found the domestic box office starting to reach pre-pandemic levels, as this year has to date brought in $7.4 billion, surpassing the $4.5 billion from this time last year. A major part of the year's uptick in numbers has been thanks to the continuing success of Top Gun: Maverick, which has crossed $700 million domestically and over $1.4 billion worldwide as well as the overperformance of Twentieth Toons: Quest for the Toon Temple with over $400 million domestically and $1.1 billion as well as Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms with $538 million to date domestically and $1.3 billion and Hailey with $392 million domestically and $944 million worldwide. Although August was expected to be dry, but thanks to the overperformances of Hailey and Stella: An Angry Birds Movie, the month was record breaking as well as with September because of the continued success of Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms with this year's Labor Day being slightly better than 2021's, when Marvel's Shang-Chi became the highest-grossing movie to open Labor Day weekend, staying in first place 2 weekends in a row. This year's Marvel efforts haven't been outright disasters, but Thor: Love and Thunder's $343 million and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness' $411 million domestic grosses were both considered underperformers with 20th Century Animation making more than them for the first time ever.

Now The Teenagers Movie's box office is projected to be lower than that of two CGI Daniel films. According to Variety, predictive data provided exclusively from content analytics firm Cinelytic suggests that due to the hype of the film as well as the series' fanbase, and due to how 2022's box office has gone thus far, the adaptation is projected to earn just $324 million domestically which is slightly less than Bigger, Badder, and Meaner as well as Daniel's Big Return as well as surpassing The Bobs Burgers Movie gross by a huge margin but is a far cry from Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood 's $721.5 million domestic gross.

What the cold calculus of Cinelytic's numbers can't wholly take into account, however, is the unpredictability factor of theatergoers. Daniel's Big Return wasn't projected to be a big hit either, but the film struck a deep chord with audiences, particularly teenage and young adult audiences as well as older adult audiences, who prompt to see the movie from nostalgia of the series as well as the film returning to it's Hanna Barbera roots. But for The Teenagers case, this could be possible due to the series' big fanbase. Also to take into consideration, Daniel's Big Return and ''Daniel: Bigger. Badder, and Meaner were the first Daniel films since 1998 and became hits from nostalgia as well as fans of the series which The Teenagers Movie could have a similar boost due to it being the first Teenagers'' feature film.

Given the box office of animated films at box office, audience demand could surpass what Cinelytics projects. Alongside other tentpoles releasing in the final quarter of the year like Halloween Ends, Black Adam, and Avatar: The Way of Water, people could be craving big-screen entertainment, making The Teenagers Movie another global smash for 20th Century. Whether it will top Cool Spot 2's $721 million domestic remains to be seen, but surpassing $324 million seems far more likely based on current data for the film.