For Family Films, Every Weekend’s a Holiday

The “family film” was once considered a sometime thing--that sometime usually meaning the summer and year-end holidays. But with kids--and their often desperate parents--on a year-round entertainment search, that sometime has become any time.

The latest proof of the family film phenomenon comes with the success of two recent releases: Paramount/Nickelodeon’s “Snow Day” and Disney’s “The Tigger Movie.” Released last month with lots of advertising on Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel and other kid-related TV shows, the films have done surprising business: “Snow Day” has made about $49 million through the weekend, while “Tigger” has pounced on more than $35 million so far.

Over the last weekend in February, “Snow Day,” “Tigger,” Disney’s IMAX “Fantasia/2000” and Sony’s long-running “Stuart Little” accounted for more than $17 million in attendance, or about 20% of the overall business for the top 20 films--higher when children’s admission prices are factored in.

“There is a big appetite out there,” says Andrew Kosove, president of Alcon Entertainment, which financed “My Dog Skip,” yet another family film that went into national release last weekend, racking up an estimated $6.7 million in ticket sales to date. “It’s simply a question of catering to it.”

According to Nickelodeon’s feature film chief Albie Hecht, even with a number of films currently competing for the family dollar, the market may still be underserved, especially at this time of year. “It’s a long stretch between Christmas and summer,” he says.

Nickelodeon’s first live-action feature--the popular kids TV network produced the animated “Rugrats” movie and its upcoming sequel--”Snow Day,” has proved to be an outstanding performer. It’s done most of its business on Saturdays and Sundays when, Hecht says, family films do about three-quarters of their weekly business. The film could gross as much as $70 million domestically.

While the major studios tend to shy away from opening too many movies that appeal to the same demographic (such as teens and older females) at the same time, “when it comes to family films there’s very little cannibalization of business,” says “Skip” producer Mark Johnson. “And everybody’s happy at someone else’s success.”

Notes Disney senior distribution executive Chuck Viane, “Every weekend seems to be a holiday weekend as far as family films are concerned. Both ‘Tigger’ and ‘Snow Day’ are generating a lot of repeat business.”

“The reality is that desperate parents don’t know a season,” says Terry Press, marketing head at DreamWorks, which scored an impressive $90-million gross on the computer-animated “Antz,” which was released in October 1998, usually one of the low points of the film-going year.

Whereas family films were once considered unhip, that has changed. The reason is a new generation of parents who both work outside the home and have a limited amount of time to spend with their children. “I think we’re living in a time when working parents feel guilty and they’re always looking for something to do with the kids on the weekends,” notes Press.

And children themselves are looking for family outings. Says Hecht, “Despite the perception that kids today are more independent, I think they are eager for activities in which the entire family participates.”

Well-Known Family Label Helps a Film

The successful marketing of family films, however, demands that parents receive assurance that the particular movie is suitable for kids. A G or PG rating is the first seal of approval. Another is a movie that is released by a well-known family label--Disney or, more recently, Nickelodeon--assuring parents that they can bring younger kids.

DreamWorks, which is run by former Disney movie head Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, the most trusted name in Hollywood, is also making inroads. Besides “Antz,” DreamWorks courted the family audience with “Prince of Egypt” for Christmas ’98. The animated biblical tale may not have been the blockbuster the studio hoped for, but it played the winter and into early spring, grossing more than $100 million. On March 31, the company will try again with another big-budget animated film, “The Road to El Dorado.”

For the company’s first live-action venture “Snow Day” (after the $100-million-plus success of “The Rugrats Movie” in late ‘98), Nickelodeon’s Hecht was careful to build in elements that parents would also find appealing.

“The concept of a snow day is a universal fantasy,” says Hecht. “A surprise day off with nothing to do. And we also included cast members like Chevy Chase, with whom parents are familiar.”

Similarly, “My Dog Skip,” based on the childhood reminiscences of author Willie Morris, has not only promoted the film’s star, Frankie Muniz, who plays the title character on Fox TV’s new hit series “Malcolm in the Middle,” but also has taken aim at the “nostalgia” (read: grandparents) audience, says Kosove. A similar approach worked for another family-oriented period piece, “October Sky,” which was a modest spring hit last year for Universal, grossing more than $30 million.

As the cable and television universe has expanded and narrowed at the same time, these films are promoted on family film channels with a niche audience, namely children. Disney and Nickelodeon use their own cable channels to hawk their films, and MTV, which like Nickelodeon is owned by Viacom, also carried “Snow Day” ads.

DreamWorks, which does not yet have a clearly established brand image with children, is allying itself with Nickelodeon to promote “El Dorado,” hoping for the same audience that made “Snow Day” a hit (kids age 8 and over).

Unlike summer and holiday family fare, which enjoys lucrative promotional tie-ins with fast-food chains and high-visibility merchandising, food and toy manufacturers rarely get on board for an off-season film. But even that is starting to change. Last fall’s “Pokemon” from Warner Bros. had tie-ins and trading cards, though its spectacular debut resulted in a shortage of the popular character cards. DreamWorks has a kids fast-food promotion with Burger King for “El Dorado.”

Particularly in fall or spring, opening weekend numbers rarely reach lofty heights, with the $50 million Pokemon grossed in its first five days last November a glaring exception. That’s one reason budgets for these films are usually much lower.

“As long as you stay under $15 million, you’re largely covered,” says Johnson. Alcon’s Kosove notes that a family film tends to last in the market and “can gross $1 million or more in its 10th or 11th week of release.” (Apart from blockbusters, most studio films do most of their business in their first six.)

Since the costs of many of these movies are relatively low--”Snow Day,” “Tigger” and “Skip” all cost $15 million or less--profitability is high, because after establishing themselves in theatrical release, the real bonanza is in home video.

According to company president David Williams, a Providence Entertainment release from a couple of years ago, “Shiloh,” did less than $5 million at the box office but sold 1.3 million video units.

Family films “have an extremely long shelf life in video,” Williams says. “If you look at a big movie like ‘Terminator’ [1984] today, it looks a bit dated. But something like ‘Old Yeller’ [a Disney family film from the ‘50s] still makes you cry. It still works.”