Was Over The Hedge A Flop And Why Hasn T There Been A Sequel

Over the Hedge was a 2006 animated film based on the comic strip of the same name by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. The movie follows a raccoon named RJ who, in an attempt to pay his debt back to a bear, manipulates a group of animals that had recently awakened from hibernation to discover their habitat has been taken over by a newly built suburb. RJ shows the animals the wonders of the suburbs, putting many of them in danger and at odds with the animals’ leader, a neurotic turtle named Verne.

The movie was released when DreamWorks Animation was at its height, becoming a major player in animation. Over the Hedge was given a prime summer release date and upon its release, it gained solid reviews from critics. It holds 76% on Rotten Tomatoes and even received three stars from acclaimed critic Roger Ebert. Yet unlike other DreamWorks properties like Trolls, Kung Fu Panda, or The Croods, Over the Hedge never gained a sequel or even a television spin-off series like Monsters vs. Aliens. Take a look at why Over the Hedge never got a sequel despite being a hit.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Background on Over the Hedge

     Paramount Pictures  

Over the Hedge is a unique film for DreamWorks Animation. The series was adapted from a syndicated comic strip, and while Shrek was also an adaptation, the studio primarily made original stories in-house. The other was the fact that the movie was originally set up at 20th Century Fox through their animation division, but was scrapped after the box office disappointment of Titan A.E. DreamWorks picked the film up and originally set Jim Carrey to voice the raccoon RJ before the actor dropped out and was replaced by Bruce Willis.

DreamWorks filled out the cast with high-profile talent, including Steve Carell, who had recently become a major comedy star the year prior with the release of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and the premiere of The Office. The cast also included Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick Nolte, Allison Janney, recent Academy Award nominee Thomas Hayden Church, and pop superstar Avril Lavigne in an effort to boost the appeal of the film.

Released in a Crowded Summer

     Disney/Pixar  

Over the Hedge opened on May 19, 2006. It opened the same day as the highly anticipated adaptation of The DaVinci Code and therefore took the number two spot at the box office with $38 million in its opening weekend. The film was number three at the box office for two weeks facing competition from X-Men: The Last Stand and The Break-Up. Yet by the middle of June, it quickly fell out of the top 10 and was overshadowed by Pixar’s Cars.

Over the Hedge grossed $155 million domestically and $339 million worldwide, which paled in comparison to Cars, which grossed $244 million domestically and $461 million worldwide. The thing is, in this day and age, even making nearly six times its original budget doesn’t necessarily mean a film is a hit.

Over the Hedge Wasn’t a Flop, Just a Disappointment

Over the Hedge was considered a disappointment by DreamWorks Animation when it was released, particularly its $38 million dollar weekend which was below the opening weekend of Shrek ($42 million) and Shrek 2 ($108 million), and even recent DreamWorks films like Shark Tales and Madagascar, which both opened to $47 million. The final worldwide gross of Over the Hedge was well below those four DreamWorks Animated films, and even today is on the lower end of the box office and is below not just every How To Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda films but also Trolls, Home, and Monsters vs. Aliens.

While Over the Hedge had a budget of $80 million, which is on the lower end of budgets for DreamWorks Animated films, that does not mean it is an immediate hit. Traditional box office metrics tend to say that a movie needs to make double its budget back to be considered profitable and Over the Hedge’s domestic total is about $5 million shy of doubling its budget. While the worldwide box office certainly may have helped, the movie was not the hit that DreamWorks was expecting. In 2007, one year after the film opened, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said they were very close to greenlighting a sequel, but it did not move forward due to the film’s box office performance.

The Time for Over the Hedge 2 Might Have Passed

DreamWorks Animation has certainly taken its time with sequels. The Croods: A New Age opened in theaters seven years after the release of The Croods. Recently, Puss and Boots: The Last Wish opened in theaters 11 years after Puss and Boots, so the studio could always make a sequel to Over the Hedge despite it opening 16 years ago. However, there are multiple factors preventing the movie now.

The biggest is regarding the two stars. Gary Shandling, who voiced Verne the Turtle, passed away in 2016. Bruce Willis, who voiced the raccoon RJ, recently retired from acting in March 2022 after he was diagnosed with aphasia, which affects language cognition and would prevent him from voicing the character. While the two stars of the film could theoretically be replaced with new voice actors, the combined factor of the two biggest leads no longer being able to be in the film with the 16-year gap and its initial box office disappointment make a sequel to Over the Hedge unlikely and not a priority for DreamWorks Animation. Most likely, Over the Hedge is simply over.