Nickelodeon Movies Inc. is an American film production company based in Los Angeles and owned by Skydance Corporation under Paramount Pictures. Originally founded on February 25, 1995, it serves as both the film production division of the American children's network Nickelodeon, and the family film distribution label of Paramount Pictures. It also collaborates with its sister studio, Paramount Animation, on a number of projects.
The division has earned numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, over 13 Saturn Awards nominations, a People's Choice Award, and four in-house honors via the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. Since its launch, over 40 feature films have been produced for theatrical release and starting in August 2021, the studio has produced films for streaming on Paramount+ and Netflix.
History 1993–95: Nickelodeon/20th Century Fox deal In 1993, Nickelodeon agreed to a two-year contract with 20th Century Fox to make feature films. The joint venture would mostly produce new material, though a Nickelodeon executive did not rule out the possibility of making films based on The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rugrats and Doug. None of the movies were produced due to the 1994 acquisition of Paramount Pictures by Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom, and they would distribute the movies instead. With the creative differences with John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy and an inability to market that property in a family-friendly manner instead of a "cynical and gross humor" scuttled the film. However, Paramount and Viacom would go forward and start development on The Rugrats Movie a year after the acquisition.
The Nickelodeon version of the Doug film was not made due to the acquisition of the show's production studio, Jumbo Pictures, by The Walt Disney Company in 1996. With this, the show moved to Disney's ABC network and new seasons aired as a part of its programming block Disney's One Saturday Morning as Disney's Doug. In 1999, Walt Disney Pictures released a film finale to the series, Doug's 1st Movie.
1995–99: Founding and early years
Nickelodeon Movies was founded on February 25, 1995. On July 10, 1996, the studio released its first film, Harriet the Spy, a spy-comedy film based on the 1964 novel of the same name. On July 25, 1997, the studio released its second film, Good Burger, a comedy film, starring Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Abe Vigoda, Dan Schneider, Shar Jackson, Josh Server, Lori Beth Denberg, Jan Schweiterman, Linda Cardellini and Sinbad. It was based on the Good Burger sketch on Nickelodeon's popular sketch comedy series All That.
On November 20, 1998, the studio released The Rugrats Movie, which was Nickelodeon Movies' first animated film and the first Nicktoon to be shown in theaters. It received mixed critical reception, but despite this, the movie became a box office success, becoming the first animated film not released by Disney to ever gross over $100 million domestically. The success of the film led to two sequels.
2000s
On February 11, 2000, the studio released Snow Day, a comedy film starring Chevy Chase, Chris Elliott, Zena Grey, Josh Peck, Mark Webber, Schuyler Fisk, Jade Yorker and Emmanuelle Chriqui. This film met with negative reviews, yet it grossed $62,464,731 worldwide. Nine months later, the studio released Rugrats in Paris: The Movie on November 17, 2000. It was the first sequel to The Rugrats Movie and grossed $76,507,756 at the domestic box-office and $103,291,131 worldwide. The film received favorable reviews, becoming the most critically acclaimed Rugrats film to date.
On December 21, 2001, the studio released its first CGI-animated film, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. It was based on a series of shorts that aired on Nickelodeon in 1998. It became a critical and box office success, earning $80,936,232 in the United States and $102,992,536 worldwide. It stars voice actors Debi Derryberry, Rob Paulsen, Carolyn Lawrence, Jeffrey Garcia, and Candi Milo, and co-starred Martin Short and Patrick Stewart. On March 24, 2002, Jimmy Neutron was nominated for the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Shrek. It was the first Nickelodeon film to be nominated for an Academy Award. The success of the film spawned a TV series, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, which aired on Nickelodeon from 2002 to 2006.
On March 29, 2002, the studio released Clockstoppers, a sci-fi action film, starring Jesse Bradford, Paula Garcés, French Stewart and Michael Biehn. This film received mixed-to-negative reviews and failed to recoup its budget in theaters. On June 28, Nickelodeon Movies released Hey Arnold!: The Movie, starring the series' original cast members and guest starring Paul Sorvino as Scheck, the CEO of a real estate company called Future Tech Industries. The film received negative reviews and grossed a small profit of $15.2 million. It was originally going to be a TV film entitled Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, but executives of Paramount Pictures decided to release this film theatrically. It was the first animated film from Nickelodeon to get a PG rating.
In 2002 and 2003, the studio, along with Klasky Csupo, released two films based on popular TV shows, The Wild Thornberrys Movie and Rugrats Go Wild, respectively. The Wild Thornberrys Movie was released on December 20, 2002, starring the show's original cast members, Lacey Chabert, Tim Curry, Jodi Carlisle, Danielle Harris, Michael "Flea" Balzary, and Tom Kane. This film received positive reviews and was a moderate box office success, grossing $40.1 million domestically and $60.7 million worldwide. On March 23, 2003, this film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Rugrats Go Wild, a crossover of Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys, was released on June 13, 2003. This film met with negative critical reception and was a minor box office success, unlike previous Rugrats movies, earning $39.4 million in the United States and $55.4 million worldwide. This film is also the only Rugrats film to receive a PG rating.
On November 19, 2004, Nickelodeon released The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, based on the popular Nickelodeon television series, SpongeBob SquarePants. This film received positive reviews and grossed $85.4 million in the United States and $140.2 million worldwide. The success of this film led to a sequel, and it was adapted into various media, including its own video game, soundtrack, books, and toy line.
Nickelodeon Movies had purchased the film rights of the A Series of Unfortunate Events book series in May 2000. Paramount Pictures, owner of Nickelodeon Movies, agreed to co-finance, along with Scott Rudin. Various directors, including Terry Gilliam and Roman Polanski, were interested in making the film. One of author Daniel Handler's, Lemony Snicket's real name, favorite candidates was Guy Maddin. In June 2002, Barry Sonnenfeld was hired to direct. He was chosen because he had previously collaborated with Rudin and because of his black comedy directing style as seen in his films The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Get Shorty. Sonnenfeld referred to the Unfortunate Events books as his favorite children's stories. The director hired Handler to write the script with the intention of making Lemony Snicket as a musical, and cast Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in September 2002. Sonnenfeld eventually left over budget concerns in January 2003, and director Brad Silberling took over. This film was released on December 17, 2004, a month after The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was released, to received positive reviews and was a moderate box office success. This film won the Academy Award for Best Makeup in 2005, becoming the first film from Nickelodeon Movies to win an Academy Award.
In 2005, the studio and Paramount Classics purchased a documentary film, Mad Hot Ballroom, at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It became the studios' first (and so far only) documentary film, the first Nickelodeon feature to be released outside of the main Paramount Pictures label, and their only film to have a limited theatrical release. The movie made back its low budget and was also a critical success.
Several months later, the studio and Paramount Pictures released their first co-production with both Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released a family comedy film, Yours, Mine and Ours, a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. This film stars Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. This film was critically panned and failed to make a profit in theatres.
On June 16, 2006, Nickelodeon released the wrestling comedy film Nacho Libre. It was very loosely based on the story of Fray Tormenta. This film stars Jack Black, Héctor Jiménez, and Ana de la Reguera. This film met with mixed critical reception, but was a box office success, earning $80,197,993 in the domestic box office and grossing $99,255,460 worldwide. A sequel to this film is being considered.
Two months later, the studio released another animated film, Barnyard, starring the voices of Kevin James, as Otis, a carefree cow who loves throwing parties, Courteney Cox as Daisy, a kind-hearted cow, David Koechner as Dag, an evil coyote, Sam Elliott as Ben, Otis's father and the leader of the barnyard, Danny Glover as Miles, an old mule, among other Los Angeles voice actors. This film met with negative critical reception, but was a moderate box office success, earning $72,637,803 at the United States box office and grossing $116,476,887 worldwide. Like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the film's success has spawned a TV show, Back at the Barnyard, which ran from 2007 to 2011 on Nickelodeon, longer than The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Chris Hardwick replaced Kevin James in the role of Otis.
On December 15, 2006, the studio released Charlotte's Web, a family drama film based on E. B. White's book of the same name, starring Dakota Fanning, Kevin Anderson, Beau Bridges, and the voices of Dominic Scott Kay, Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, Reba McEntire, Kathy Bates, with Thomas Haden Church and Cedric the Entertainer. This film became a critical and box office success, earning $82,985,708 in the United States and $144,877,632 worldwide. This was Nickelodeon's first G-rated film in five years and first live-action film rated G, as well as the studio's highest-grossing film with that rating. Dakota Fanning won a Blimp Award for Favorite Movie Actress at the 2007 Kids' Choice Awards.
Two years later, on February 14, 2008, the studio released The Spiderwick Chronicles, a fantasy drama film based on the bestselling book of the same name, starring Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Short, Nick Nolte, and Seth Rogen. This film was released in both regular and IMAX theaters and received favorable reviews and was a box office success, earning $71,195,053 in the United States and $162,839,667 outside of the United States.
On July 28, 2008, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies released a coming-of-age comedy film, Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging, based on two bestselling British novels by Louise Rennison, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and It's OK, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers. The film met with positive reviews and was a box office success. It was released in theaters in the United Kingdom, earning £8,647,770 and grossing £13,835,569 worldwide. To date, it has had a direct-to-DVD release in the United States and has made its U.S. premiere on Nick at Nite on March 12, 2009. It was also the first film from Nickelodeon Movies to receive a PG-13 rating.