Rather than following the route of a traditional sequel, STX Entertainment has reportedly teed up plans for a Bad Moms spinoff, and it’s already landed a July 14, 2017 release date.
It’s called Bad Dads and, as the title suggests, takes the relatively successful format found in Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s maternal comedy – $170 million worldwide at the time of writing – and applies it to a male-oriented feature.
Little is known about the cast and crew attached to said offshoot, but STX is bullish in its hopes to expand the Bad parents brand, mapping out cross-platform strategies that could entail a reality television show, short form digital content, and a consumer products program.
It’s quite the unexpected deviation, though the production house defended its decision via an official statement: “Where other studios have automatically green lit traditional and significantly more expensive sequels, STX has determined those sequels on average are grossing 68% less than the originals.”
A fair point when you factor in the financial duds of 2016 – Independence Day: Resurgence, X-Men Apocalypse (at least compared to previous X-Men films) – but those holding out to see Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn’s party-loving mothers back on the big screen will find little but disappointment in today’s announcement.
Bad Dads will face stiff competition from Fox threequel War For The Planet Of The Apes when it opens on July 14, 2017. Then again, Bad Moms pulled in a respectable box office haul all the while releasing opposite Universal’s Jason Bourne. Will 2017 yield a similar fate for STX’s planned spinoff?