Why’d it Hit? Hotel Transylvania

https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/07/12/whyd-it-hit-hotel-transylvania/

The Hotel Transylvania movies have basically replaced the Ice Age movies as that one animated kids movie franchise that critics don’t like but families always flock to anyway as the first 2 movies have been hits at the box office. Why is that?

The first Hotel Transylvania did have to face competition from similarly themed movies like Frankenweenie and Paranorman but, despite those two getting better reviews, Hotel Transylvania ended up making more money. That in no doubt has to do with the fact that Hotel Transylvania is the most commercial of the three.

Even if Frankenweenie and Paranorman were better movies, they weren’t as accessible to the average audience member as Hotel Transylvania was. Transylvania was in CGI, it had lots of toilet humor, and it tried really hard to connect with kids (I mean characters, even ones who are thousands of years old and are voiced by actors in their 40’s and 50’s, refer to love as a “zing” for crying out loud). Frankenweenie, on the other hand, was in black and white and basically kept its references to old monster movies from the 30’s and 40’s. Paranorman had a quirky indie feel to it. Not only that but it wasn’t afraid to get dark, which might’ve scared parents and kids away.

But what was really working against them is that they were both in claymation and stop motion animated movies just don’t tend to do well at the box office. Sometimes they do fine, look at Coraline, but it’s rare.

So that’s why Hotel Transylvania ended up winning at the box office. It wasn’t the only kids movie out at the time but it was the most mainstream and, as a result, it’s the one that ended up winning over the mainstream.