Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Look to the cloud to protect the life documents saved on your computer

Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok? Take our quiz.

5 myths about Social Security as the program faces a funding crisis

Miss Manners: Longtime friends lose minds over canceled dinner plans

Carolyn Hax: After holiday meals, guests rush the kitchen to claim the leftovers

Ask Amy: Retired couple misses social activities since the pandemic

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Some cruise prices are about to get a little more clear

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

These ISIS news anchors are AI fakes. Their propaganda is real.

Even remote and hybrid work can burn you out. Here’s how to avoid it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

The Post’s choices in Northern Virginia’s U.S. House primaries

States see legalized sports betting as a tax windfall — but at what cost?

No one is rocking in the ‘free world’

Kenyan president aims to attract green investment during U.S. visit

On Gaza, Biden is right and Netanyahu is wrong

Did Trump’s lawyers catch Michael Cohen in a ‘lie’? Let’s take a look.

Now playing off-Broadway: Trump’s synchronized sycophants

Trump’s courtroom enablers

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Retired cop meets abandoned baby he helped 23 years ago: ‘What are the odds?’

In photos: The scene in Houston after severe storms killed at least 4 people

Rep. AOC's 'people-first' approach

Rep. Delia Ramirez on organizing power and money

Bryce Harper, Joey Gallo and a bond forged by baseball since they were kids

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth is up for auction

A taco will always be a taco — no matter what we call it

Elections 2024 live updates: Biden continues outreach to Black voters; Trump heading to Minnesota

At campus protests, ‘DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA’!

CNN gets a presidential debate — and a much-needed win

Trump

Handout

Last November, the movie business was in desperate need of good news when an unlikely savior appeared in “The Croods: A New Age.”

At a time when many movie theaters were closed, DreamWorks Animation’s sequel about a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Croods:_A_New_Age" target=_blank>family of outspoken cave men</a> defied the vaccine-less moment and opened strongly in a reduced number of venues, selling an average of nearly 800 tickets at each screen. The data sent a clear and reassuring message: No matter what hurdles moviegoing faced, it could always count on family films.

Nearly 10 months later, a tougher reality is unfolding: People have stopped buying tickets to family films. In a striking development, the great all-ages unifier of American pop culture is struggling.

Over this past summer, these family-friendly movies arrived — <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boss_Baby:_Family_Business" target=_blank>“The Boss Baby: Family Business”</a> and <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spirit_untamed" target=_blank>“Spirit Untamed,”</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11832046/" target=_blank>“Paw Patrol: The Movie”</a> and “Space Jam: A New Legacy.” And, one by one, they went, attracting just a small fraction of the usual ticket buyers — sometimes even smaller than the titles aimed at older audiences in a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58270577" target=_blank>dismal box-office summer.</a> No family film this year has exceeded $100 million in domestic receipts. In 2019, 11 of them did.

Like so much else the pandemic has upended — the five-day office workweek, the sardined-in dance floor — it remains unclear whether the shift is momentary or permanent. For now, though, studios have begun frantically pulling family films from the release calendar, or selling them to streamers, or both.

If the trend continues, a cherished institution (what feels more American than a family outing to the multiplex?) could be diminished. And some sizable revenue could disappear along with it.

“The really big event family film like ‘Frozen’ I don’t think will ultimately go anywhere,” said Doug Creutz, an analyst at investment firm Cowen, echoing the thoughts of several Hollywood observers. “But for a lot of other titles, even after the pandemic ends, the idea of going to see a family film may not be what it was.”

While parents will still bring their children out for major theatrical events, the idea of a weekly or even monthly family trip to the movies could go the way of the <a href="https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/banana-splits-adventure-hour/" target="_blank">beloved by long-forgotten Banana Splits.</a>

The immediate culprit is the delta variant, which, by infecting children <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/delta-variant-children-pediatrician-tips-184253521.html" target=_blank>at greater rates</a>, appears to have prompted cautious parents to keep their unvaccinated children home.

But more long-term factors are also at play. In 2019, <a href="https://www.mpa-apac.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MPA-THEME-2019.pdf" target="_blank">a study</a> from the Motion Picture Association found the number of regular monthly moviegoers under the age of 12 dropped 16 percent from 2018, the only double-digit percentage decline of any age group below the age of 50. Eighteen months of at-home viewing have only made kids — and parents — less likely to think of theaters when they think of entertainment.

Financially, meanwhile, global box office economics have increasingly been convincing theatrical film executives that it’s worthwhile to aim only for big-budget home runs. 

Collectively, it means a whole tier of middle-budget family movies could either go to streaming or soon vanish entirely.

“The number of theatrical slots for animation was actually being reduced even before the pandemic,” said Dan Sarto, co-founder of the online animation community Animation World Network. “Now it’s just being accelerated.”

In 2019, there were at least five films that cost under $100 million to produce. All grossed between $100 million and $200 million worldwide, which likely puts them slightly in the black, but probably doesn’t make them sufficiently profitable to justify their existence in a diminished market.

This is perhaps even truer for live-action family movies. Twenty years ago, live-action family films were a regular event in movie theaters. In 2001, four of the top 20 movies at the domestic box office were live-action family films (“Spy Kids,” “The Princess Diaries,” the first “Harry Potter” and a “Dr. Dolittle” sequel). In 2019, the list included only an “Aladdin” reboot.

The family film — that gloriously welcome notion that parents could pack the kids into the car for something everyone would enjoy, or at least tolerate — has a rich legacy.

It began in earnest with Disney hits like “Mary Poppins” and “Peter Pan” in the middle 20th century and stayed popular for decades with films like “The Muppet Movie” (1979), “Annie” (1982), “Flight of the Navigator” (1986), “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids” (1989) and “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993). They gave way to the animation boom of recent years that includes pretty much every Pixar movie.

The category came with both economic imperative and cultural benefit. On a landscape where generations can’t find common ground, the family film allowed older and younger Americans to come together — a grand bridge-builder in one profitable, 100-minute multiplex package.

The present reality, though, is less uplifting. Encapsulating the tenuous moment is “Hotel Transylvania.” The Sony <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Transylvania" target="_blank">animated franchise</a> had seen its global box office totals go up with every new movie since its 2012 debut. The most recent film took in more than a half-billion dollars in 2018. But Sony is poised <a href="https://variety.com/2021/film/news/hotel-transylvania-4-amazon-streaming-rights-sony-1235042371/" target="_blank">to sell </a>the fourth movie, “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” to Amazon for a figure reported to be a little above $100 million. The studio’s acceptance of that sum suggests just how much executives think box office returns could fall off compared to past films.

Paramount Pictures is also facing the doldrums. Executives on the studio’s East Los Angeles lot had high hopes for “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” an adaptation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_the_Big_Red_Dog" target=_blank>classic book series</a> scheduled for theatrical release in September. But watching the family-film highway pileup, executives decided to pull it from the calendar indefinitely. The movie’s Canadian distributor also <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/clifford-big-red-dog-pulled-from-toronto-film-festival-1234992940" target=_blank>canceled a gala </a>at the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts Thursday. Universal, meanwhile,<a href="https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/Movies/2021/03/04/Universal-delays-F9-Minions-Rise-of-Gru/1841614888864/" target=_blank> postponed</a> “Minions: The Rise of Gru” for a year, to July 2022.

That movie, like <a href="https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lightyear" target=_blank>“Lightyear,”</a> Pixar’s “Toy Story” spinoff scheduled for next June, will probably fare well once the pandemic subsides, Creutz and other experts note. These big-budget titles generate hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, and neither studios nor audiences are in a rush to give them up. But the outlook for everything else is less clear as theatrical studios reexamine a potentially smaller market post-covid.

Theater owners say they have never seen so stark a divide in family entertainment between the high end and everything else. “It just has to feel premium now,” said William Barstow, chief executive of the <a href="https://www.manta.com/c/mmd74q2/main-street-theaters-inc" target=_blank>Main Street Theatres</a> chain based in Omaha. “You can’t just throw out a flat cartoon anymore. Families are too smart. And they have too much else to watch.”

Studios trying to skimp on animation or marketing costs with their family films the way that they might, say, a horror movie, will see their film run out of theaters, he said. “As a studio, you have to get behind it in a way you never did before,” Barstow added.

Streaming is picking up some of the slack. The Jennifer Garner comedy “Yes Day” and Robert Rodriguez’s kid-superhero follow-up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can_Be_Heroes_(film)" target=_blank>“We Can Be Heroes” </a>were two of the biggest pandemic hits, live-action family films that drew tens of millions of viewers apiece on Netflix, according to the company.

“We knew ‘Yes Day’ would find the largest possible audience on a streamer,” said Daniel Rappaport, a partner at <a href="http://management360.com/" target=_blank>Management 360</a> who produced the film, explaining the logic of setting up the project there. “With theaters, it’s a crapshoot how many people will come out to see it. On Netflix, it was viewed by over 65 million households.”

But it’s not clear the theatrical experience can simply be ported over. 

“There’s a marketing campaign that these films have and an excitement that’s created when a movie is in theaters first,” said Alicia Reese, an analyst at <a href="https://www.wedbush.com/" target=_blank>Wedbush Securities</a>. “That makes it feel like something special. Will that happen in the same way with family films that premiere on streaming? I don’t know.”

Several observers noted that Pete Docter’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_(2020_film)" target=_blank>Pixar movie “Soul,”</a> which premiered on Disney Plus in December, seems to have had less durability than other films from the same studio and director, such as “Up” and “Inside Out.”

Creators are also trying to tally the social cost. By scaling these movies down to the small screen, they ask, will it also reduce the films’ place in our collective memory? “I go back and forth. Is this a tragedy, or is it just a change?” said a producer of numerous theatrical family-film blockbusters, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid being seen as criticizing partners.

Some also worry that the move to streaming, while it opens up the possibility for more content, will actually lead to a new kind of creative conservatism. The Disney Plus lineup is a case in point. It includes projects such as “The Mighty Ducks,” “Home Alone,” “Sister Act” and “Turner and Hooch” — all reboots of film hits from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Even Netflix, known for an originality mind-set in family entertainment, has turned to established brands, as with its recent deal for the smash YouTube <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/07/netflix-orders-3-seasons-cocomelon-lane-animated-preschool-series-specials-little-baby-bum-1234791577/" target=_blank>preschool show CoCoMelon</a> or the upcoming <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_A_New_Generation" target=_blank>“My Little Pony: A New Generation.”</a>

“I call it the ‘now what’ moment, when every family property in existence has been worn out,” said Fred Seibert, producer of such hits as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fairly_OddParents" target=_blank>“The Fairly OddParents”</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFuU-5B1eKAWaTeLUu3JuyA" target=_blank>“Adventure Time”</a> who as an executive <a href="https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/Fred_Seibert" target=_blank>also steered</a> a struggling Nickelodeon to popularity. “I don’t think we’re at the ‘now what’ moment yet, but we may not be far away. And when we do I worry not only how we will make anything new but how we’ll be able to communicate it to the audience.”

Television has picked up the baton from the film world in at least one way. Family films in theaters inspire “co-viewing” where parents and children watching together. After all, kid-oriented films in theaters need to appeal to the adults who ferried them there.

But after nearly 18 lockdown months, there is <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/knowledge/media-brand-communication/content-helping-families-cope-fast-facts" target="_blank">evidence</a> more co-viewing is happening at home too, and producers are now crafting their entertainment accordingly. Seibert notes that a “Fairly OddParents” reboot he is producing at Paramount Plus will include live action in addition to animation, which could attract an older audience.

Bruce Nash, who runs box office site <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/" target=_blank>The Numbers,</a> says he sees the family film’s migration out of theaters as a temporary condition. The movies and audience will come back when it’s safe, likely in 2022.

Even he admits however that the economics may diminish the breadth of titles. “If we get all the way back to 75 percent of the pre-covid audience — and I think that’s an optimistic number — studios are still going to have to find a way to cut budgets by 25 percent. If they don’t, the movies don’t get made.”

But the biggest obstacle facing theatrical family films, experts say, may be that the adults who fuel their success will simply lose interest after this extended streaming period. 

“The longer people do something temporary,” said Creutz, “the greater the chance it becomes permanent.”

The Arthur F. Burns Prize for Foreign Reporting

Columbia University and Yeshiva University

Steven Zeitchik covers the emerging technologies that are transforming our lives – from cryptocurrency to the metaverse to AI to cutting-edge digital shifts still to come. He also has covered the business of entertainment. examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas.

Steven Zeitchik

washpost

The family trip to the movie theater is dying amid the delta variant

the-washington-post

Via Reuters

Reuters

PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE from Paramount Pictures

name

iptc-media/science_and_technology

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/theatre

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/animation

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/cinema

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/media

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Client Topic: WebEx

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Bed Bath & Beyond KWs - INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Agriculture/Food Production_legacyaux_PI3

advertising/B2_Arts & Entertainment_legacyaux_btb

advertising/B2_Asian Lifestyle Content_legacyaux_im0

advertising/B2_Automotive Interest 2.5.15_legacyaux_jqs

advertising/B2_Baby Content_legacyaux_gnp

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Discover Card KWs – EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Amazon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Ronald McDonald House KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Mercedes EQS KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Diageo - Johnnie Walker KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Flu, Sickness & Virus Content

client-blocklists/Client List: Organon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Horror and Thriller Entertainment

advertising/1st: Keywords+IPTC: Arts/Entertainment/Documentaries

advertising/Covid Bars & Restaurants Reopening Content

client-blocklists/Client List: Optum KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Inpixon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Showtime KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Apple TV+ KW – INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client Neg KW List: Omega KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - EXCLUDES ALL - 12.23.20

advertising/B2_Celebrity_legacyaux_sg5

client-blocklists/PMI KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Communities and Subcultures_legacyaux_ry3

advertising/B2_Community Service_legacyaux_h1s

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Capital One (One Tech) KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Corporate Responsibility_legacyaux_FTM

client-blocklists/Client List: IBM KWs ALTERNATE Watson - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/B2_Data Center Buyer_legacyaux_80A

advertising/B2_Disaster, Accident and Tragedy_legacyaux_758

client-blocklists/Client List: Citibank KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Citibank KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/Fortune 500 Content

advertising/Qualcomm Custom KW - 5G

advertising/B2_Health and Beauty_legacyaux_3fv

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ CLIENT LIST: AT&T KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Inspiring Content_legacyaux_UTY

client-blocklists/National Instruments KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Lifestyle_legacyaux_ipv

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T Digital Divide  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Samsung 2021 KWs - EXCLUDE ALL

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_Shopping_legacyaux_sa6

advertising/B2_Society_legacyaux_0cz

advertising/B2_TV and Movies_legacyaux_vat

advertising/B2_Video Games_legacyaux_c0o

advertising/B2_Video, TV and Movies_legacyaux_1t5

advertising/B2_Pop Culture_legacyaux_ei3

client-blocklists/Client List: GEICO KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: Fidelity Investments KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/WaPo: Human Disaster

client-blocklists/Client List: Verizon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Novo Nordisk KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Facebook KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Capital Concerts KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T ALT KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Mercedes KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Boeing KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Aetna KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Philip Morris KWs - INCLUDES ANY 

client-blocklists/Dupixent neg kws - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Capital One KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 1.4.21

client-blocklists/Bank of America Merrill Lynch KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/CME KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Office Depot KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: ETrade KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/business&limit=20

Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.

Business

The source for business news and analysis. Covering economic policy, business policy, financial news, economic issues, stock market data, local business, technology and more.