The plot follows the now-adult Templeton brothers who are brought back together after Tim's daughter Tina requests their help for Baby Corp to stop a professor from erasing childhoods worldwide. Plans for a Boss Baby sequel were announced in May 2017 with McGrath returning to direct. Animation began at DWA Glendale and some production assets were borrowed from
Jellyfish Pictures, with voice acting being done remotely due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on July 2, 2021, in traditional and select
RealD 3D,
Dolby Cinema and
4DX locations, by Universal Pictures; it also streamed on paid tiers of
Peacock for 60 days. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed over $146 million worldwide against a budget of $82 million.
A third Boss Baby film was announced to be in early development.
Plot
Tim Templeton is now an adult and lives with his wife Carol and their two daughters, 7-year-old Tabitha and infant Tina. Tim's younger brother Ted is a successful
CEO and is always absent. One night, Tim discovers that Tina comes from Baby Corp, just as how Ted did, and that she has been assigned for a "special mission" that requires Ted's presence. Tim refuses to call Ted, saying that he will never come. However, Tina leaves a fake voicemail for Ted, luring him to the Templetons' house.
The next morning, Ted arrives and Tim explains to him that Tina is a Baby Corp dispatch. Tina introduces the brothers to a new formula that will allow them to turn back into children for 48 hours in order to infiltrate Tabitha's school and figure out what Dr. Erwin Armstrong, founder and principal of the Acorn Center for Advanced Childhood is planning behind parents' backs.
At the school, Tim, now as his 7-year-old self, follows Tabitha to her class while baby Ted is placed with other babies. Ted rallies the babies to help him get out of the playroom so that he can go to Armstrong's office to investigate. Tim tries to get sent to the principal's office by disrupting class, but is instead put in "The Box" for timeout. Ted discovers that Armstrong is actually a baby himself, having run away from home after realizing that he was smarter than his parents and now makes money by creating popular phone apps. His ultimate plan is to get rid of every parent on B-Day, so that they cannot tell their children what to do anymore.
On the night of a holiday pageant, where Tabitha is supposed to sing a solo, the brothers and Tina plan to expose Armstrong. However, they learn that B-Day is set to happen that night through Armstrong's new app, QT-Snap, which will hypnotize the parents into mindless zombies. Both Tim and Ted are caught by Armstrong's ninja babies and are put in The Box, which slowly starts to fill with water. Tabitha performs her solo, but when she sees that Tim has not shown up, she runs off the stage crying. She is consoled by Tina, who reveals her identity and her mission. Tabitha agrees to help her younger sister by getting to the server and shutting down QT-Snap before it can go worldwide. Ted calls Precious, Tabitha's pet pony, into the school, to break them out of The Box.
Tim and Ted reach the server first, but they are stopped by Armstrong, who calls the zombie parents for backup. While the brothers hold them back as the formula starts to wear off, Tina and Tabitha get up to the server. Tabitha is able to hack in and pull up the shutdown screen, but is interrupted by Armstrong. The sisters then set off a candy lava volcano
using Mentos and soda, destroying the servers and turning all parents back to normal. Tina then reveals that bringing Tim and Ted back together was her true mission. The whole Templeton family gathers to celebrate Christmas, while Armstrong returns to his own family.
Voice cast
Alec Baldwin as Ted Templeton Jr. aka The Boss Baby, a former executive of Baby Corp, Tim's younger brother, Tina and Tabitha's uncle, Carol's brother-in-law, and Ted Sr. and Janice's younger son
James Marsden as Tim Templeton, Ted Jr.'s older brother, Carol's husband, Tina and Tabitha's father, and Ted Sr. and Janice's older son. Marsden replaces
Tobey Maguire and Miles Bakshi from the first film, where Maguire voiced the adult Tim and Bakshi voiced the younger Tim
Amy Sedaris as Tina Templeton, an undercover and new executive of Baby Corp, Tim and Carol's younger daughter, Tabitha's younger sister, Ted's younger niece, and Ted Sr. and Janice's younger granddaughter
Ariana Greenblatt as Tabitha Templeton, Tina's older sister, Tim and Carol's highly intelligent older daughter, Ted's older niece, and Ted Sr. and Janice's older granddaughter. Greenblatt replaces Nina Zoe Bakshi from the first film
Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Erwin Armstrong, an intelligent baby with a plot to remove all grownups
Eva Longoria as Carol Templeton, Tim's wife, Ted Jr.'s sister-in-law, Ted Sr. and Janice's daughter-in-law, and Tina and Tabitha's mother
Jimmy Kimmel as Ted Templeton Sr., Janice's husband, Ted Jr. and Tim's father, Carol's father-in-law, and Tina and Tabitha's paternal grandfather
Lisa Kudrow as Janice Templeton, Ted Sr.'s wife, Ted Jr. and Tim's mother, Carol's mother-in-law, and Tina and Tabitha's paternal grandmother
James McGrath as Wizzie, Tim's
Gandalf-esque alarm clock from his childhood[5]
Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro, who previously composed the score for the first film, returned for the sequel,[15] while
Jacob Collier wrote a cover of
Cat Stevens' "
If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out".[16][17] Songwriter
Gary Barlow also contributed with a brand new song performed by Greenblatt called "Together We Stand".[16] Other tracks from Hans Zimmer such as "Run Free" from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and "Zoosters Breakout" from Madagascar were used in the film with the "Run Free" track used during the pony chase to Acorn Academy at a theater Tim and Ted break into. The "Global Warming Song" in the third act of the film was written by Zimmer and Marazzo, along with Tom McGrath and Nelson Yokota, and produced by Marazzo.
Release
The Boss Baby: Family Business was initially scheduled for release on March 26, 2021, but was later delayed to September 17, and finally July 2. These shifts were reportedly made in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Its eventual shift enabled The Boss Baby: Family Business to be simultaneously released in theaters and on
Peacock for 60 days through paid tiers.[18][19]
According to
Samba TV, 783,000 households streamed the film on Peacock over its opening weekend.[20] By the end of its first 30 days, the film had been watched in an estimated 2 million households.[21]
The Boss Baby: Family Business grossed $57.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $89.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $146.8 million.[23][24]
The film was released with The Forever Purge on July 2, 2021,[2][19]The Boss Baby: Family Business grossed $7.7 million on its first day,[25][26] including $1.3 million from Thursday night previews.[27] The film debuted at second[28] grossing $17.3 million[29] from 3,640 theaters.[27] With the top three films at the box office, F9, Family Business, and The Forever Purge, all having been released by Universal, it marked the first time a single studio had done so since February 2005.[29] Its second weekend earnings dropped by 47 percent[30] to $8.7 million,[31] and followed by another $4.7 million the third weekend.[32]
Critical response
On the
review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "It's more C-level than C-suite, but as a painless diversion for the kids, this Boss Baby manages some decent Family Business."[33] On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews",[34] making it the lowest rated film from DreamWorks Animation on the platform. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (an improvement over the first film's "A−"), while
PostTrak reported 72% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 49% saying they would definitely recommend it.[28]
Thomas Floyd of The Washington Post gave the film 2.5/4 stars, writing that "...there's a severe case of sequel-itis, as returning director Tom McGrath and screenwriter Michael McCullers go to farcical lengths to re-create the original movie's gags, story beats and character dynamics. Still, Family Business manages to largely improve on its predecessor, with the help of savvy casting and surprisingly pointed social satire."[35] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Ordoña said: "It's more of the same, for better or worse, but likely with enough bells and whistles — especially those new characters — to please younger fans."[36]
Writing for The A.V. Club, Katie Rife gave the film a "C+" grade and said: "...it's nothing to get worked up about, in part because this Boss Baby moves too quickly to inspire thought about much of anything. Compared to the first film, Family Business moves along at a swift and stimulating clip, with fewer diversions into world-building and hallucinatory internal logic."[37] Carlos Aguilar of the TheWrap wrote: "Family Business offers an array of half-baked conflicts, all crying out to be noticed, while the creators are apparently unsure of which requires the most urgent attention."[38]