Summary

• A Bad Moms franchise, led by stars like Mila Kunis, explores honest depictions of motherhood & family relationships.
• Despite mixed critical reviews, the Bad Moms movies have been popular at the box office & among audiences worldwide.
• Spinoff possibilities include A Bad Moms Christmas 2, Bad Dads, & a Bad Moms' Moms film, expanding the franchise's reach.

With Bad Moms in 2016 and A Bad Moms Christmas in 2017, the women-centric R-rated comedy franchise has been a hit, and with a possible A Bad Moms Christmas 2 and other sequels on the way, the series could become even bigger. The Bad Moms franchise stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn, as well as a rotating cast of comedy and acting stars including Christina Applegate, Christine Baranski, Susan Sarandon, and Cheryl Hines. The movie series shows an honest depiction of motherhood and all the difficulties that come with it.

While neither film received rave reviews from critics, Bad Moms with a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes and A Bad Moms Christmas with a 32%, audiences loved the movies, and they've earned hundreds of millions of dollars and the box office. Bad Moms was not a Christmas movie franchise at conception but with A Bad Moms Christmas and the possible A Bad Moms Christmas 2, the series has taken on that tone. There are other possible Bad Moms movies in the pipeline beyond the holiday-themed ones, and they're all in various stages of development.

A Bad Moms Christmas 2

A Follow-Up To The Holiday Themed Sequel

A Bad Moms Christmas 2 is not confirmed at this time and, despite the box office returns of the first Christmas film, there has not been much news about a Christmas sequel. However, if anyone involved in production would be interested in a sequel, there is a legacy of Christmas sequels in movies that have laid the groundwork for the franchise to return to the holiday. Christmas is a time ripe for conflict, with old friends and family members coming back together to dredge up memories and feelings, welcome or not.

A sequel to A Bad Moms Christmas could easily mine new parts of the holiday season for story and could even pivot the Bad Moms franchise into a Christmas-themed movie series. Family members and friends could be introduced the same way that the moms' moms, Ruth (Baranski), Isis (Sarandon), and Sandy (Hines), were all introduced in the first Christmas movie. There has been a dearth of great Christmas movies in the last few years and A Bad Moms Christmas 2 could fill that niche.

One of the stars of the Bad Moms series, Kristen Bell, who plays Kiki Moore, is most familiar with Christmas-themed sequels. As the voice of Anna in the Frozen movies, including Frozen II, it's apparent that she is game for running back a holiday-centric sequel, or at least a sequel with the feeling of the winter holiday, as is the case with Frozen II.

Bad Dads

An All-Male Spinoff Focusing On Fatherhood

Back in October 2016, Variety announced that STX Entertainment, which distributed Bad Moms and A Bad Moms Christmas, had plans to release a spinoff film called Bad Dads on July 14, 2017. The studio said,

"Where other studios have automatically green lit traditional and significantly more expensive sequels, STX has determined those sequels on average are grossing 68% less than the originals. Instead, STX has chosen 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."

STX had big plans after the runaway success of Bad Moms and intended for a lot more material to be made for the franchise. However, Bad Dads has yet to materialize. A Bad Moms Christmas did premiere in 2017, and perhaps took the studio's focus away from the dad-centric spinoff, but since 2016 there has been no news about Bad Dads.

Not everyone was excited that the follow-up to the female-led Bad Moms, a rarity in studio comedies, would be a generic male-led film. Scott Mendelson wrote in Forbes a scathing indictment of what jumping from Bad Moms to Bad Dads would imply,

"...this [The Bad Dads announcement] is another example of a troubling new pattern, where the success of a comparatively rare female-driven hit creates more opportunities not for women but for men who already have their hands in most of the pie. When you respond to a female-driven hit by setting up a male-driven offering, you're missing the point and negating the triumph."

It is a little odd that after the success of Bad Moms, the studio's first thought was to rehash the idea with men now, as if the women's version was just a test run. It seems STX backpedaled on the idea, considering that A Bad Moms Christmas was the next film to be released, apparently taking the slot of Bad Dads.

Now that a few years have gone by, it might be the right time for Bad Dads. It feels less like a cynical grab for more money at the expense of a female-led film, and more as an opportunity to drum up excitement about the franchise. Bad Dads has not been confirmed or even mentioned since 2016, but there's always the chance that conversations have been ongoing behind closed doors.

Bad Moms' Moms

A Spinoff Starring The New Moms Introduced In A Bad Moms Christmas

A third film in the Bad Moms franchise was announced at CinemaCon in April 2019, via Variety. It is set to focus on the mothers of the titular "Bad Moms" introduced in A Bad Moms Christmas, hence the title. When A Bad Moms Christmas was playing in theaters, producer Suzanne Todd told EW about a future film,

"...When we have shown it in previews, there was some crazy percentage of people who said, 'Please make a third movie as soon as possible.' Because there is kind of a jumping off point at the end of the movie for maybe what you would do if you were going to do another movie. We will have to see. The first movie came out in summer. This movie comes out in the very, very crowded holiday season. I mean, as we point out in the movie, moms are busier than ever, so we're counting on them to do all their business and also come see a movie. All I can say is, 'We will see.'"

Comedy trilogies are not the easiest thing to execute; just look at The Hangover Part III, Bill & Ted Face the Music, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, Little Fockers, etc., to see how difficult the third movie can be to make well. But Bad Moms' Moms does have something going for it in its stellar trio of actors at the center in Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, and Cheryl Hines. However, any news of Bad Moms' Moms dried up during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sarandon told US Weekly in 2021:

"I hope they get that script together. We had so much fun. Those ladies are just a blast and so fun to work with. So I hope so... They were just kind of starting to figure it out and then Covid hit. So, I don’t even know. You are reminding me I should ask my agent what’s going on with that."

Whether Sarandon's agent got back to her or not isn't confirmed, but that was the last word on the progress of Bad Moms' Moms.

Bad Moms Reality Show

A Planned Unscripted Version Of The Hit Franchise

As STX alluded to in 2016, a Bad Moms reality TV series has also been bandied about. In 2018, more details were released about an upcoming, unscripted Bad Moms series (via THR). Though not much information was released, the general idea is that the show would focus on real-life imperfect moms, just as the film does. The project was expected to be executive produced by STX’s chief creative officer, Jason Goldberg, and prolific unscripted producer Brant Pinvidic.

However, since that 2016 THR announcement, no more news about a Bad Moms reality series was released and the project looked to be dead. Then, in August 2023, Lionsgate closed a deal to handle the distribution and marketing of STX movies and projects (via Deadline). Also divulged in that announcement is that Lionsgate intends to produce two scripted series based on the STX projects Hustlers and Bad Moms. It could be that the planned unscripted Bad Moms series has now morphed into a scripted series.

Hahn, Kunis, and Bell are all veterans of comedy and drama television, and seeing them all appear in a new series based on Bad Moms could be the perfect next interaction of the franchise, maybe even more appropriate than something like A Bad Moms Christmas 2. There is still significant interest in the Bad Moms franchise and a series with as broad an idea as showing the honest truth of motherhood has many different and interesting directions to go. So, while nothing is confirmed, there's sure to be an addition to the franchise in the near future.