Over the next two weeks we have not one, not two, but THREE movies with TV series foundations.
“Downton Abbey” was a global phenomenon. Here in the states, it broke ratings records for PBS and took home plenty of awards gold. Focus Features jumped at the chance to bring it to the big screen in 2019. It opened to $31 million with a first place finish and totaled $96 million domestically.
Along comes a sequel, “Downton Abbey: A New Era”, which will battle Week 3 of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” for the top spot at the box office this weekend.
What’s fascinating about “Downton” is that these are film versions of the series with the ACTUAL CAST of the series. So many “TV to Movie” adaptations over the years have been with entirely new casts in the leading roles because they’re adaptations of decades-old shows.
“The A-Team”, “21 Jump Street”, “Get Smart”, “Mission: Impossible”, “Star Trek”, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “The Equalizer”, “The Addams Family”, “CHiPS” and “The Brady Bunch Movie” are just *some* examples.
In many cases, the only way to get the cast of a series to play their roles in the movie version is to make the movie while the show is still on (or has recently wrapped). No one complained about the casting of “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”. And if it’s an animated series, your rewards may even be better. “South Park”, “Rugrats”, “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”, “SpongeBob”, “The Simpsons” and “Shaun the Sheep” found great success with audience and critical big screen hits.
“Bob’s Burgers” is up next. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie”, opening in theaters next weekend, is coming out just five days after the FOX animated series concludes its 12th season. It’s a big sweeping adventure comedy musical too grand for small screens, which is why Loren Bouchard, 20th Century Studios and Disney have been saving it for a couple years.
And then there’s new Disney+ release “Chip ’N Dale: Rescue Rangers”, which takes Chip & Dale and makes them *actors* who starred on the late ‘80s/early ‘90s “Rescue Rangers” series. They reunite in a much different Hollywoodland obsessed with reboots, re-treads and pop culture nostalgia.
It’s too bad “Chip ’N Dale” is only getting an at home release, because I think millions would’ve left their living rooms to go nuts for this wild ride at cinemas.