STX Films, the studio behind “Bad Moms” and “A Bad Moms Christmas”, announced at CinemaCon in Vegas that they’re spinning off that franchise. Susan Sarandon, Cheryl Hines and Christine Baranski, who prominently appeared in the holiday installment, will headline “Bad Moms’ Moms”. It’ll be interesting to see if the “Bad Moms” concept is still popular about a year from now.
And who exactly will go see “Bad Moms’ Moms”: the twenty and thirtysomething year old women who loved the first two movies – or their moms?
STX definitely knows they’re going after that target demo with the upcoming comedy “Poms”. Diane Keaton, Jacki Weaver, Pam Grier and Rhea Perlman play women at a retirement community who decide to take part in a cheerleading competition. If you’re thinking that the concept and Keaton casting sound familiar, it’s because one of the producers of “Poms”, Alex Saks, also produced last year’s “Book Club”.
That rom-com for those of a certain age was distributed by Paramount. With generally positive reviews, the A-list ensemble of Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, and a storyline balancing old-fashioned and contemporary themes, “Book Club” was able to bring in $69 million.
Halfway through “Book Club”, I realized that if you take away the goofy nature of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” element, stories like this one deserve to be told. They have a purpose. They’re relatable. They have arcs and humanity. And people (primarily those receiving “senior discount” movie tickets) will go see them.
“Poms” attempts to follow down that same path. It does look sillier than “Book Club”, which has me a bit concerned. And it could receive an R rating (“Book Club” was a questionable PG-13). But don’t be surprised if Keaton leads yet another summer sleeper hit – 40 years after winning an Oscar for “Annie Hall”.