The 2025 “Smurfs” movie came out in theatres this month and has been largely ignored by the masses. The box office predictions have not been very favorable, and any attention the movie does get is not positive. While this lack of enthusiasm is partly due to more anticipated films being released around the same time, I would argue that the problem is deeper than that. To me, the main thing that explains why the movie flopped is that nobody cares about the Smurfs anymore.
The Smurfs have been around for a long time, with their popularity peaking back in the 1980s with their animated TV series. Over time, their fame began to fade, and nobody thought much of them until the 2011 “The Smurfs” movie. The movie was not received well by critics, but it was financially successful overall, which eventually summoned a sequel. Fast-forward to the present, and now there have been four Smurf movies in fourteen years.
Most of these movies did not do as well as the first one, making less money and having generally bad reviews. These movies are catered to children, but most kids in this generation never grew up with the Smurfs in any capacity. These films failed to appeal to adults as well, since most of them would become tired of hearing the word “Smurf” for the hundredth time. It baffles me that movie producers and directors are still trying to make more of these movies when they don’t appeal to anyone.
To me, it seems like these studios desperately wanted their version of “Minions”. After all, The Smurfs and Despicable Me’s minions have many similarities that are hard to dismiss when you notice (Both are brightly colored, wear the same clothes as one another, have quirky language, etc.). The minion craze has largely died out, yet The Smurfs seemingly didn’t take the hint. It’s about time these studios let go of Smurfs and move on to something new.
