Summary
- The Bob's Burgers Movie faced competition from big blockbuster sequels, making it challenging to attract a large audience at the box office.
- The movie didn't resonate with its target audience and lacked standout moments to create buzz among fans or newcomers.
- The film's decision to tone down edginess and focus on musical numbers may have alienated some fans who enjoyed the show's subversive humor.
Despite having an ardent fanbase for its TV show, Bob's Burgers Movie was a disaster at the box office. It begins with the Belchers trying to solve the mystery of the giant sinkhole that developed right in front of their restaurant, effectively ruining any chance they have of attracting customers over the summer. Bob and Linda struggle to maintain business behind the counter while Tina, Louise, and Gene try to figure out how the sinkhole got there, eventually leading them to the pier, the Fischoeders, and a diabolical conspiracy.
Like The Simpson's Movie before it, The Bob's Burger Movie hoped to capitalize on its success as an adult animated sitcom, and prior to its release in May 2022, pop-ups of the Bob's Burgers restaurant were planned in malls with cinemas across the country. 20th Century Fox believed the fans would happily go to the theater to see their favorite Bob's Burgers characters and enjoy a taste of The Bob's Burgers Movie, both on and off the screen. Unfortunately, a list of problems as long as Louise's homework excuses led to the movie only making $34.2 million dollars on a $38 million dollar budget.
10 Grown-Up Animation Traditionally Performs Badly At The Box Office
Adult animation doesn't do as well at the box office as animated films aimed at children. Most Dreamworks and Pixar films are family-friendly, and even with an attempt to appeal to that demographic, The Bob's Burgers Movie was already going to have a difficult time drawing a large audience because parents doubted their ability to take their kids to a movie that had a lot of mature humor. It was going to be a tough sell since it wasn't marketed as a kid's movie.
9 Bob's Burgers Movie Faced Competition From Top Gun: Maverick & Doctor Strange
Despite being considered one of the best animated movies of 2022, The Bob's Burgers Movie debuted on Memorial Day weekend to lots of competition. Like a burger between two buns, it was between two huge tentpole sequels; Top Gun: Maverick and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Fans of the TV show who were also fans of the other movies probably chose to see the big blockbusters instead of something that felt like it could be watched at home and didn't need to be seen in the theaters.
8 Bob's Burgers Is A Niche TV Show With A Small Audience
There's no doubt that Bob's Burgers has a vocal and dedicated fanbase, but the TV show is still niche. Unlike The Simpsons with 34 seasons or Family Guy with 23, Bob's Burgers has not only not been around as long, it's not as big a part of the pop culture zeitgeist. When The Bob's Burgers Movie came out, it didn't have the same must-see appeal that either of those adult cartoons did, so in some ways its box office success was always going to be lower.
7 Fans Waited To Stream Bob's Burgers Movie At Home
During COVID, a lot of films were released directly to streaming in order to recoup some of their production costs rather than die at the cinema, and eventually even when movie theaters opened up again, some movies got a simultaneous streaming and cinematic release, which gave fans the option of different viewing experiences and environments. A lot of fans didn't see a point to go to the movie theater to see The Bob's Burgers Movie when it would be available to stream in a month or less.
6 Bob's Burgers Movie Marketing Suffered Due To COVID Delays
In 2019 marketing for The Bob's Burgers Movie was ramping up, with pop-up burger restaurants set to open in malls across the nation, but everything ground to a halt when COVID shut everything down. Fans wouldn't be able to go to the movie theater, so 20th Century Fox waited for a time when they could open up again, but by then audiences were still had trepidation about gathering in large groups. COVID delays resulted in making the movie one of the biggest box office flops of 2022 that couldn't recoup its production budget, to say nothing of its marketing budget.
5 Bob's Burger Movie Felt Like One Long TV Episode
Much like how some great SNL skits should never be stretched into feature-length films, The Bob's Burger Movie felt like the plot of one episode stretched out into 90 minutes. There wasn't a lot to the plot that fans of the TV show hadn't seen before because the burger business is always in jeopardy, and there were entire vignettes that felt like filler. Without the padding, the movie felt like it could have been a two-part episode of the series that didn't need the budget required to smooth out the animation.
4 Bob's Burgers Movie Didn't Resonate With Its Target Audience
In order to perform well, The Bob's Burgers movie needed to resonate with its target audience, but it fell flat. Fans weren't leaving the theaters telling other fans to hurry up and see it because there was no sense of urgency or spectacle; it lacked a "Spider-Pig" moment from The Simpson's Movie or anything that would make it stand out from the TV show. Falling flat with its intended fanbase proved catastrophic because if it didn't appeal to them, it certainly wasn't going to appeal to anyone who didn't know anything about the Belchers or the rest of the characters.
3 Bob's Burgers Movie Removed Its Edginess For Broad Appeal
In its early seasons Bob's Burgers was known for being more edgy than other animated sitcoms that featured nuclear families. Several episodes revolve around drug use, sex workers, and drinking in a cavalier way that speaks to the show's subversive sense of humor that is absent from The Bob's Burgers Movie. In an effort to appeal to a broader audience and a wider demographic, these sorts of jokes were toned down or outright removed, which might have led to certain fans deciding to skip the movie even if they still watched the series.
2 Bob's Burgers Movie Focused On Musical Numbers
Bob's Burgers has had some show-stopping original songs in the series (including the catchiest ones that play over the end credits), but turning The Bob's Burgers movie into a full-blown musical could have negatively impacted its success. Because not every episode of the series features a song, when they do appear they're welcome surprises and add to the shenanigans of the plot without detracting from it. Musicals can be very polarizing, so even fans of the TV show might have decided to give it a because they didn't want to sit through song after song.
1 Bob's Burgers Movie Plot Didn't Affect The TV Show
Despite the fact that the Bob's Burger Movie solved a Simpson's villain issue by making a minor existing character like Grover Fischoeder its primary antagonist, its plot didn't affect anything happening in the television show. As landlords and tenants, the Fischoeders and the Belchers have always had some sort of friction, but this level of conspiracy attached to Grover seemed like something that would affect their relationship going forward. Yet subsequent seasons of Bob's Burgers didn't address what happened in the movie, making the plot feel inconsequential to the Belcher's lives, resulting in fans caring less about The Bob's Burger's Movie within the context of the IP.
