Night at the Museum, Home Alone Among Reboots Headed for Disney+
Even before the Disney acquisition of Fox was completed we knew that the company was developing TV reboots of some of its classic properties. Now, speaking on the Company’s quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed a group of Fox properties that will be rebooted for the Disney+ platform, one of the first uses by Disney of their new IPs.
Among the titles confirmed by Iger are Home Alone, Cheaper by the Dozen, Night at the Museum and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (the later two of which were previously said to be in the works). It’s unclear if these new “remakes/reimaginings” will be series or features.
The Home Alone franchise began with the 1990 original starring Macaulay Culkin, which went on to become the highest grossing film of that year, bringing in $476.6 million worldwide (equivalent to $934 million in 2019). Directed by Chris Columbus and conceived by John Hughes, the film went on to become a franchise with five total films, only two of which starred Culkin. The last entry was Home Alone: The Holiday Heist in 2012 which debuted on television.
Cheaper by the Dozen is the longest running series of the four, based on the 1948 book of the same name which was adapted into the hit 1950 movie about a family with 12 children. The film was rebooted in 2003 starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt and grossed over $190 million. A sequel followed in 2006.
The fantasy-comedy trilogy Night at the Museum stars Ben Stiller as the museum’s night guard where he finds out that everything comes alive in the museum at night. All three movies have been huge financial successes, bringing in $1.35 billion at the worldwide box office.
Diary of a Wimpy is based on Jeff Kinney’s best-selling illustrated novel series of the same name. The film’s story centers around Greg Heffley, a boy who’s trying to survive middle school along with his bestfriend Rowley. There are a total of three sequels that followed the first film with the combined series bringing in $265 million worldwide at the box office (with a combined budget of $80 across the four movies).