Hailey

Hailey is a 2022 American computer-animated teen coming-of-age comedy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Glickmedia, with animation provided by Mikros Image. The film is directed by Mark Andrews from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel, David N. Weiss, and J. David Stem and a story by Andrews, and features the voices of Abbi Jacobson, Brett Gray, Jamie Lee Curtis, Timothée Chalamet, Jeremy Renner, Michelle Monaghan, Nick Offerman, Awkwafina, Annabelle Wallis, Miley Cyrus, Brooklynn Prince, Trevante Rhodes, Doja Cat, Logan Grove, and Zachary Gordon. The film follows the title character as she adjusts to the life in San Francisco while experiencing the typical high school experience.

Hailey premiered on July 26, 2022 at the TCL Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was theatrically released in the United States on August 5, 2022 in 3D and IMAX, by United Artists Releasing. The film received universal acclaim by critics with praise for the voice acting as well as originality and has grossed over $1 billion worldwide, becoming the sixth highest grossing film of 2022 as well as the highest grossing film by MGM Animation Studios and Metro Goldwyn Mayer's highest grossing film domestically.

A sequel is currently in development.

Plot
Hailey is a former inspiring Houston student in Texas, who mostly succeeds in elementary school and middle school. Years later, she was informed by her parents that they bought a set of flight tickets to San Francisco because there are more successful schools in that city than Houston, and they applied a high school for Hailey to join. She and her parents took an airline to San Francisco, California where Hailey is forced to bid her friends farewell as she hops on the plane.

Hailey and her family land in San Francisco after Hailey initially tried to jump out the plane back to her hometown. Feeling despaired, Hailey attempts to call her friends from her hometown just to find out they instantly moved on as well as unfriending her where she later cried until getting cheered up and motivated by her parents. The next week, Hailey starts her first day at Cine High where the class president Ashton as well as Principal Shelly Crabble greets her and welcomes her to her new school while Crabble later antagonizes Hailey for her perfect grades.

Cast

 * Abbi Jacobson as Hailey, a 15 year old socially awkward teenage girl who has to adapt to her new school.
 * Mckenna Grace as 5 year old Hailey.
 * Brett Gray as Alfred, the nerd yet goofy friend Hailey makes who is frequently bullied by Gregory and the other jocks.
 * Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelly Crabble, an evil principal who runs Cine High.
 * Timothée Chalamet as Jeffrey, a popular boy who is Hailey's love interest.
 * Jeremy Renner as Aaron, Hailey's dad.
 * Michelle Monaghan as Hailey's mom.
 * Nick Offerman as Tibel Crap, Hailey's math teacher.
 * Awkwafina as Linda Armstrong, Principal Crabble's dimwitted and goofy secretary.
 * Annabelle Wallis as Tori, the dimwitted cheerleader captain who holds a grudge against Hailey and has a crush on Jeffrey.
 * Miley Cyrus as Hannah, a 18 year old girl who is Hailey's older sister.
 * Brooklynn Prince as Doris, Hailey's 5 year old troublesome younger sister.
 * Trevante Rhodes as Yerrick "Big Buck", one of the Jocks who is notably buffer than all the other ones and often picks on Hailey and Alfred.
 * Doja Cat as India, the class clown who often gets into trouble and one of Hailey's new friends.
 * Logan Grove as Ashton, the class president who welcomes Hailey to Cine High.
 * Zachary Gordon as Gregory, one of the Jocks and the team captain of the football team.
 * Scott Eastwood as Derrick, Hailey's ex-boyfriend.
 * Christian Convery as 5 year old Derrick.
 * Emily Osment as Trisha, one of Hailey's friends in Houston.
 * Shiloh Bearman as 5 year old Trisha.
 * Jeff Bennett as Grandpa Maxwell, Hailey's grouchy but clumsy grandpa. A clown who throws a pie at Hailey A screaming kid during the riot
 * Matthew Fogel as Nardo, Hailey's old nerdy friend in Houston.
 * Kath Soucie as 5 year old Nardo.
 * Jenny Slate as Bammy Googala, a cartoon frog that Big Buck is scared of.
 * Sean Schemmel as Baston Rut, a classmate of Hailey's at Cine High with anger issues.
 * Lisa Linder Silver as the lunch lady.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Coach Walkins, the football coach.
 * Harland Williams as Billy, the weird kid A police officer.
 * E.G. Daily as Sarah, the school morning announcements girl.
 * Frank Welker as Franko, Hailey's pet dog.

Loop Group

 * Daniel Booko
 * Patty Connolly
 * Matt Corboy
 * Debi Derryberry
 * Ben Diskin
 * Andrew Frankel
 * Amad Jackson
 * Sunia Jae
 * Cassandra Morris
 * Erin Myles
 * Arthur Ortiz
 * Shakira Janai Paye
 * Andy Pessoa
 * Ben Pronsky
 * Grace Rolek
 * Michelle Ruff
 * Dennis Singletary
 * Mark Sussman
 * Shane Sweet
 * Kari Wahlgren
 * Alana Webster
 * Scott Whyte

Development
Mark Andrews left Pixar in October 2019 to direct his original animated film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. While his original film was in development, he also served as co-head of story in Swan Dream Pool: The Magic Trails. On February 20, 2021, the title was confirmed to be Hailey. Jonathan Glickman is also producing through his new company Glickmania. Matthew Fogel, David N. Weiss and J. David Stem were hired to write the screenplay. Andrews described the film as a simple coming-of-age story while using his own personal experiences in high school while writing the film and wanted the product to feel like a Disney Channel movie.

Casting
On May 15, 2021, it was announced that Abbi Jacobson would voice the titular character. Additional cast members were revealed on July 6, 2021, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Jeremy Renner, Michelle Monaghan, and Awkwafina. On March 20, 2022, it was revealed that Timothée Chalamet, Nick Offerman, and Annabelle Wallis joined the cast.

Animation
Portions of production were done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Music
On June 8, 2021, it was announced that Brian Tyler would score the soundtrack for the film. The soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande on August 5, 2022.

Release
Hailey was released on August 5, 2022, in 3D and IMAX. It was originally scheduled for August 12, 2022, before moving a week forward. Universal Pictures distributed the film internationally, making it the fifth Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated film to be distributed internationally by Universal, after Dusk and Dawn (2002), The Addams Family (2019), Swan Dream Pool: The Magic Trails (2021), and The Addams Family 2 (2021).

Marketing
A teaser poster was released on January 5, 2022. The teaser trailer was released March 22, 2022, and was shown in front of Dusk and Dawn: A Zodiacal Night in theaters. The official trailer was released on June 30, 2022, and was shown in front of Minions: The Rise of Gru in theaters.

Sprite promoted the film, featuring the new Sprite bottle on August 1, 2022. Additional promotional tie-in include Hardee's/Carl's Jr.

Home media
Hailey was released digitally on September 16, 2022, and was released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on October 18, 2022, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Box office
As of December 28, 2022, Hailey has grossed $407 million in the United States and Canada and $615.5 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $1.022 billion. It is Metro Goldwyn Mayer's highest grossing film domestically, the highest grossing film by MGM Animation, the first non-Upside Mystery film to reach over $700 million and MGM's second highest grossing film worldwide behind Skyfall ($1.109 billion). On September 20, 2022, it passed $900 million worldwide, the first non-James Bond movie by MGM to do so. The film is also the highest grossing film to be released in August worldwide. On December 10, 2022, the film reached $1 billion worldwide, becoming the first MGM Animation Studios film to do so and MGM's first film since Skyfall to reach this mark.

United States and Canada
In the United States and Canada, Hailey was released alongside Bullet Train and Easter Sunday, and was initially projected to gross $35 million from 4,400 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after making $22.1 million on its opening day including $5.1 million in Thursday previews, projections were increased to $65–70 million. It ended up over performing and making $71.6 million in its opening weekend, topping box office while having the fourth biggest opening weekend for an animated film in the pandemic as well as the fourth best opening of all time for MGM and the biggest for an original film during the pandemic. It also broke records for its weekday grosses on Tuesday through Thursday with $19.1 million, $12.9 million, and $12 million respectively. In its second weekend, the film remained at the top spot making $60.2 million, dropping a small -16%, the smallest for MGM and an August film, while breaking the August record for the biggest second weekend for a film released in August. Deadline Hollywood contributed this overperformance with its good word-of-mouth as well as high critical praise from the film and virtually no competition in an empty August until Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms which can benefit the film's legs afterwards. It fell to second place in its third weekend behind over-performing newcomer Stella: An Angry Birds Movie while dropping -33% and made $40.3 million. It returned to the top spot in its fourth weekend and made $26.3 million beating all newcomers and the previous weekend's winner Stella: An Angry Birds Movie. On August 28, 2022, the film passed Skyfall ($304.3 million) to become MGM's highest-grossing film domestically. It once again remained in first in its fifth weekend, making an estimated $18.4 million during the weekend dropping -30.1% and $23.6 million during the Labor Day weekend, while also being the first non-superhero movie since Tenet to top the box office for four weekends. The film dropped -48.6% and made $9.4 million in its sixth weekend falling to second behind newcomer Barbarian. In its seventh weekend, it made $5.5 million placing fourth with newcomer Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms leading that weekend while dropping -41.9%. The film dropped -28.4% and made $3.9 million in its eighth weekend while placing sixth. In its ninth and tenth weekends, it made $2.6 million and $2 million placing 9th and 10th respectively. It surpassed $400 million on its 76th day in release, becoming the first film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to do so unadjusted for inflation. The film fell out of the top 10 by its thirteenth weekend with a mere $1 million weekend.

International
Worldwide, the film was projected to gross $40–45 million for a total worldwide opening of $75–80 million. Like its domestic performance, it ended up over performing and making $101.6 million overseas for a worldwide opening weekend of $173.2 million. It added $74.1 million in 60 markets in its second weekend, remaining at the top spot for overseas. It crossed $700 million worldwide during its fifth weekend, making it the first non-Upside Mystery film by MGM Animation to reach this milestone. During its sixth weekend, it crossed $800 million and overtook Upside Mystery 3 ($804.3 million) to become the highest grossing MGM Animation film of all time worldwide. The film opened in China on September 16 to a record $52.6 million opening, the biggest for an MGM movie as well as MGM Animation while crossing $500 million internationally in its seventh weekend. On September 20, 2022, it surpassed $900 million worldwide, becoming the first MGM Animation as well as non-James Bond film by MGM to do so. The film made $100.2 million in its third weekend in China while also becoming the highest grossing MGM Animation film in that country as well. During its fourth weekend in China, it was announced that a 30-day extension was given to the film due to the performance there.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 458 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Hailey 's all-star and talented voice cast as well as beautiful animation gives this teen comedy a real authentic look with the humor and wits as well as story that can be relatable to any teenager as well as adult." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 42 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade on an A+ to F scale, the first for MGM Animation Studios, while PostTrak reported 97% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 85% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Additionally, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns MGM Holdings, praised the film calling it a "beautiful masterpiece and deserves all the love it gets".

Sequel
In November 2022, new MGM Animation Studios CEO Bill Damaschke confirmed that a sequel is in development due to the unexpected success of the film.

TV series
In December 2022, Mark Andrews stated that Amazon Prime Video has greenlit the upcoming TV series for Hailey.