Box Office Analysis: 2014 Has Been Rough For Family Movies

A lot of things have gone over spectacularly in 2014 cinema, but weirdly, family movies have been having one of their worst years in recent memory. It's not that any of them are tanking in a "Lone Ranger" style, it's just that they're certainly underwhelming mightily compared to years past. The main problem is the huge amount of lazy sequels made this year.

Now, as anyone whose read this blog even for a minuscule amount of time has likely realized at this point, I don't enjoy grouping an entire cinematic ideal under one quality grouping. For instance, just because Ghost Rider 2 is terrible doesn't mean all superhero movies are awful, it just means that specific movie is awful. So when I say sequels are the problem for family movies this year, I'm not condoning great family movie sequels like Toy Story 2 or Kung Fu Panda 2. Rather, I'm talking about all the lazy ones produced this year in a stunning amount of numbers.

In 2014, we've about eleven family movies so far, with all but two of them deriving from sort of source material, whether they're a sequel to a past family feature (Dolphin Tale 2, Rio 2, How To Train Your Dragon 2), a live-action remake (Maleficent), based on a TV show (Mr. Peabody & Sherman) or even a toy (The LEGO Movie). Here's what I find kinda funny; I'm sure plenty would think the one based on a toy would be some kind of harbinger of how despicable modern cinema has become, yet The LEGO Movie is fantastic, a beautifully made, hilarious and heart warming film.

Both in its marketing and in the film itself, it promised something moviegoers hadn't seen, well, really ever. That's what people going to the movies like to see, something new, unexpected. Plenty of uber successful action films this summer, both in terms of quality and financials like Godzilla, Dawn of The Planet of The Apes and X-Men: Days of Future Past gave people something they had never seen in those respective franchises before and people lined up in droves to see it.

The only other truly successful family movie of 2014, Maleficent, similarly offered the chance to see Angelina Jolie in a live-action family movie, playing one of Disneys most famous antagonists. I despised the film, but from a marketing perspective, it was an ingenious move and it paid off in droves for Disney. Going forward, the key isn't just non-sequel ideas (one of only two non-sequel family movies this year was Earth To Echo, which still reeked of being an E.T. rip-off), but something interesting that we haven't seen before. Something truly....Special.

Now, to help start off your Monday on a cheerful note, enjoy one of my favorite moments from The LEGO Movie....