A 2017 animated movie that did well commercially, but less so critically, has been in the Netflix Top 10 for nine weeks and counting. The Boss Baby made over $500 million at the box office, but fared less well with the critics, who thought the plot was overcomplicated and the humor could have been better. Clearly, that hasn’t deterred kids from watching it probably on repeat, judging by the Netflix charts.
The concept behind The Boss Baby is pretty hard to explain to the uninitiated. A young boy named Tim gains a new baby brother, but when the baby isn’t in front of their parents, he acts weirdly adult-like. It turns out that he’s a business manager from Baby Corp and has been sent on a mission to discover why puppies are overtaking babies in terms of ‘cute things that everyone loves.’
It is slightly surprising that The Boss Baby and Paw Patrol: The Movie have both been in the Netflix Top 10 for weeks, when neither are new movies. But if you’re a parent you won’t be surprised by kids’ abilities to re-watch their favorite movies over and over again.
The Boss Baby was successful enough to launch a sequel and two TV series spin-offs. The premise of the kids movie was considered so weird that a philosophical symposium with speakers from international universities took place in 2021 which attempted to analyze the film.
Animated movies are doing well in 2023, and the number one movie at the worldwide box office by a long way is still The Super Mario Bros Movie. Across the Spider-Verse, which has only been out for a few weeks, is at number four. Pixar’s Elemental has struggled somewhat, taking $130 million and currently sitting at number 16. We’ll have to see how Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken fares when it’s released on June 30.
Check out our guide to the best family movies.