Although The Bob’s Burgers Movie was a critical hit, the question of whether or not The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 will happen is not an easy one to answer. Now more than ever, due to changes in the movie industry’s production process, it can be difficult to tell just how well or poorly a movie performed upon release. Movies can flop at the box office but become huge hits via streaming services, or may well make millions on their opening weekend but be met with reviews so terrible that any chances of a potential sequel are irrevocably scuppered.
In many respects, The Bob’s Burgers Movie improved on The Simpsons Movie – with the two animated families considered close contemporaries. The theatrical spinoff of Bob’s Burgers earned the same Rotten Tomatoes score as The Simpsons Movie with a fraction of the earlier hit’s budget, and its plot managed to tell a compelling story without needing to add any new characters to the show’s cast. However, The Simpsons Movie comfortably outdid The Bob’s Burgers Movie regarding box office receipts – which is always a massive factor in any potential sequel considerations.
The Bob’s Burgers Movie earned approximately $34 million at the box office on a budget of around $38 million. However, this apparent failure does not guarantee that the movie won’t receive a sequel and, on the contrary, it is very tough to tell what the feature-length future of Bob’s Burgers looks like. On the one hand, The Bob’s Burgers Movie objectively didn’t do well in theaters, not quite recouping its budget despite a strong opening weekend. On the other, unlike The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers currently has online clout on its side. The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a hit on streaming services and was always likely to do better there as an extension of a television show that is popular online, so the odds are good that The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 will happen, but it will be a straight to streaming affair.
Why The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 Will Be Released (But Not In Theaters)
The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 is likely to happen since the series itself remains popular and the movie was critically acclaimed. However, The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 will likely go straight to streaming since this fits the self-contained scale of the original movie and lines up with South Park’s future plans. South Park’s feature-length movie specials like The Streaming Wars have proven that there is a market for adult animation specials that utilize popular twenty-minute weekly sitcoms to tell longer, more ambitious stories, and Bob’s Burgers is guaranteed no competition from its most famous inspiration on this front.
The Simpsons producer Al Jean said in November 2021 that The Simpsons Movie 2 would not go straight to streaming as he was not interested in a small-screen spinoff for the series. As such, the creators of Bob’s Burgers can be sure that The Simpsons will not be providing any feature-length adventures for streaming services in the coming years, meaning the series could produce The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 to fill this gap in the market. Whether The Bob’s Burgers Movie 2 will take advantage of this opportunity remains to be seen, but the lackluster box office of The Bob’s Burgers Movie doesn’t necessarily spell an end to the show’s movies.
