The Smurfs 2 (2013 film)

History of the film

The Smurfs 2 is a 2013 American 3D live-action/computer-animated family comedy film and a sequel to the 2011 film The Smurfs. It is loosely based on The Smurfs comic-book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo. It is the second installment of a projected trilogy, produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is directed by Raja Gosnell, who helmed the first, with all the main cast returning.

New cast members include Christina Ricci and J. B. Smoove as members of the Naughties, and Brendan Gleeson as Patrick Winslow's stepfather. The film was released on July 31, 2013 and is dedicated to Jonathan Winters, who voiced Papa Smurf and died on April 11, 2013.

Like the first film, The Smurfs 2 was met with negative critical reception, with a review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes giving the film even worse rating than to its predecessor. Although making more than three times of its budget, The Smurfs 2 earned over $200 million less than the first film.

Its gross of $347 million was seen by Sony as a disappointment,[9] which Box Office Mojo labelled as "an unprecedented drop for a closely-timed family sequel" and attributed to the negative reception of the first film and to the strong competition coming from Despicable Me 2, another family film.