In the shadow of the UK box-office monster that was Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bad Moms’ huge success may have escaped noticed. Not at its studio, mind you. STX Entertainment, fresh from banking $170 million on its mums-behaving-badly comedy, is putting a male spin on the concept with Bad Dads.
Where Bad Moms had Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn jettisoning responsible parenting in favour of hard-partying and heavy drinking, this one will show the menfolk doing likewise. Expect white men with babies strapped to their fronts walking towards the camera in slow-motion to a hip hop soundtrack.
In a spin-off from the usual terminology, STX is calling this one a “first film offshoot”. Essentially, the studio feels that it's hit the motherlode and the prefix ‘Bad’ can now be applied to any number of “brand extensions". Or as STX’s press release puts it, a strategy to "focus on extending consumer passion for the Bad Moms brand with a series of film spin-offs, a reality television show, short form digital content, and a robust consumer products program”. Be still our beating hearts.
With the Bad Moms concept putting a sly spin on typical father/husband irresponsibility (The Hangover, The Dilemma, What To Expect When You’re Expecting, every '80s thriller ever), a pivot straight back to the male point-of-view seems at best premature, at worst plain daft. We’ll find out on 14 July, 2017 when Bad Dads gets its US release.