As we come to the end of another troubling year, suddenly the news from the film front isn’t all doom and gloom. Cinema audiences may be in steep decline, but there’s one kind doing much better than any other: the family-friendly film. Fans of gratuitous nudity, extreme violence and Gregg Wallace are going to hate me for pointing this out; but stay with me. The facts back me up.
Universal’s latest fun-for-all-the-family musical Wicked (PG) survived iffy reviews to set a record for the biggest opening weekend for a Broadway adaptation, with a $114 million debut in the USA. Disney’s colourful Moana 2 (PG) enjoyed a record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend, grossing $221 million.
The highest grossing film in North America this year has been another Disney sequel, Inside Out 2. Other massive hits have been Despicable Me 4 and Kung Fu Panda 4.
Even family films are not immune to Hollywood’s increasingly suicidal infatuation with wokeness
The more eagle-eyed among you may already have noticed that these hits are mostly sequels.
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