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 Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
 Sony
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</figure>Each Hotel Transylvania movie has been leggier than the last in terms of post-debut domestic box office muscle. Not even John Wick can boast that particular benchmark. <div></div>In good news for movies arriving in theaters this summer sooner rather than later, Sony Animation’s fourth and final Hotel Transylvania movie will open not on August 5 but on July 23. Yes, that’s the day which was recently vacated by The Tomorrow War as Skydance sold the rights to that one to Amazon where it will debut on July 2.  This places Hotel Transylvania 4 alongside M. Night Shyamalan’s Old and leaves The Suicide Squad unopposed in early August. I guess Sony would rather spar with Space Jam: A New Legacy’s second weekend than The Suicide Squad’s debut frame. While it will now debut one weekend before Jungle Cruise and one weekend after Sony’s own Cinderella, it now gets more time before the only remaining animated movie, Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Movie. Penned by Genndy Tartakovsky (who directed the first three installments), Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is directed by Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon and again features Adam Sandler as “Drac” and Selena Gomez as Mavis. The press release doesn’t clarify, but I’m guessing the franchise cast of Sandler’s usual “friends from work” (David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, etc.) will be reprising. Here’s the trivia: The first three Hotel Transylvania movies have been both massive commercial hits and have pulled off the unthinkable milestone whereby each installment is leggier than the last. Yes, the series has earned a combined $1.3 billion worldwide on a combined budget of $245 million budget, which is why we’re getting a fourth one. But unlike any modern franchise I can find, its legs have increased rather than decreased. To wit, Hotel Transylvania opened to decent reviews and solid buzz with $42.522 million in September of 2012. This was back when folks actually saw a variety of movies in theaters. Rian Johnson’s original, R-rated time-travel thriller Looper opened concurrently with $20 million on its way to a $66 million domestic (and $176 million worldwide) cume while Universal opened the buzzy Pitch Perfect to $5.149 million in just 335 theaters before going wide the next weekend. We really didn’t know how good we had it. Anyway, Hotel Transylvania earned $148.3 million domestic (and $358.3 million worldwide) on an $85 million budget, giving Sandler his biggest global hit and giving the film a strong (even for animated) 3.49x weekend-to-final multiplier. Hotel Transylvania 2, the best of the series so far, opened with $48.5 million in September of 2015, alongside Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro’s dynamite The Intern. The latter would leg out to $75.5 million domestic (and $194 million worldwide on a $35 million budget) from a $17.7 million domestic debut. Once again, we didn’t know how good we had it and how quickly “it” was about to disappear. Not only did Hotel Transylvania 2 earn more than its predecessor ($169.7 million domestic and $474.8 million worldwide on an $80 million budget), it actually notched a 3.5x weekend-to-final multiplier. Yes, it was and remains Adam Sandler’s biggest (unadjusted-for-inflation) domestic grosser. Hotel Transylvania: Summer Vacation opened in late July of 2018 and sent the Drac Pac on a cruise. The rom-com, pairing its widowed protagonist with great granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing (Kathryn Hahn), opened amid a crowded and bountiful summer with $45.3 million (counting $1.3 million in sneak previews). It legged out to $167 million domestic and $528.5 million worldwide. That was A) Sandler’s biggest global earner ever and B) a 3.68x weekend-to-final multiplier. And with Hotel Transylvania: Transformania opening amid a still-recovering theatrical marketplace, I wouldn’t bet against it being even leggier (even with smaller domestic earnings) than its predecessors. As for “why,” it’s frankly the franchise’s unassuming nature. The films get decent reviews and solid audience buzz but aren’t the kind of pop culture juggernauts that require fans to camp out at midnight or make sure they see it as soon as possible. They have a kid-friendly premise and an adult-friendly cast, with Sandler and company doing their PG-13, kid-friendly humor in a PG-rated, parent-friendly sandbox. Like DreamWorks Animation in their prime, the films represent high-budget, high-quality animated comedy entertainment that won’t make your kids cry and (unlike most Pixar movies) won’t make the parents cry either. They are ideal “cinema as a babysitter” options. That may sound like a criticism but part of that “ideal” designation comes from their relative quality. There have been respective franchise installments which have been leggier (the Toy Story movies come to mind). And presuming Frozen III A) gets made and B) is at least as leggy as Frozen ($400 million from a $93 million Wed-Sun Thanksgiving debut) and Frozen II ($471 million from a $130 million Fri-Sun launch), we’ll have to add Frozen to the pile. Likewise, we’ve had two Mamma Mia movies which earned $144.13 million from a $27.75 million launch (5.2x) and $120.6 million from a $34.9 million debut (3.43x). But in terms of A) maintaining over/under 3.5x weekend-to-final multipliers over more than two chapters and B) increasing in leggy-ness (since most sequels open bigger but flame out faster), Hotel Transylvania is in a class of its own. The only other comparison in terms of successive upward bumps in post-theatrical legs is, of course, Lionsgate’s John Wick series. The Keanu Reeves action franchise earned $43 million domestic from a $14.4 million debut (2.98x) in 2014, $92 million from a $30.44 million debut (3.02x) in 2017 and $171 million from a $56.82 million launch (3.001x) in 2019. So close, and yet, so far. Maybe Lionsgate can release John Wick: Chapter 3 (and only Chapter 3) back into theaters before the May 27, 2022 release date. Regardless, by that time Hotel Transylvania will have wrapped up its (for the moment) four-movies-and-done franchise. If the pattern continues, Transformania will be even leggier than Summer Vacation which was even leggier than Hotel Transylvania 2 which was leggier than Hotel Transylvania. <div id="lightbox-inline-form-5dae6d25-67c3-4a1f-8e80-1a98d8e25e87"></div><div></div>

SONY

In good news for movies arriving in theaters this summer sooner rather than later, Sony Animation’s fourth and final Hotel Transylvania movie will open not on August 5 but on July 23 ... Penned by Genndy Tartakovsky (who directed the first three installments), Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is directed by Jennifer Kluska and Derek Drymon and again features Adam Sandler as “Drac” and Selena Gomez as Mavis ... If the pattern continues, Transformania will be even leggier than Summer Vacation which was even leggier than Hotel Transylvania 2 which was leggier than Hotel Transylvania.

Box Office: How ‘Hotel Transylvania’ Became One Of Hollywood’s Leggiest Franchises

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