Strays | |
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Directed by | Josh Greenbaum |
Written by | Dan Perrault |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Tim Orr |
Edited by |
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Music by | Dara Taylor |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $46 million [2] |
Box office | $36 million [3] [4] |
Strays is a 2023 American comedy film directed by Josh Greenbaum and written by Dan Perrault. The film follows an abandoned dog (voiced by Will Ferrell) who teams up with several strays (voiced by Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, and Randall Park) to get revenge on his abusive owner (Will Forte). Harvey Guillén, Rob Riggle, Brett Gelman, Jamie Demetriou, and Sofía Vergara also star.
Strays was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on August 18, 2023. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $36 million on a $46 million budget.
Reggie is a naive Border terrier who lives with his selfish deadbeat owner Doug. Even though Doug only keeps him to spite an ex-girlfriend, Ashley, Reggie believes that Doug loves him, and does everything he can to make him happy, much to Doug’s chagrin. When Reggie inadvertently destroys Doug's bong, Doug makes several attempts to abandon Reggie, which Reggie views as a game. Losing track of Doug in a city three hours away, Reggie meets a street-wise Boston Terrier named Bug who teaches him how to be a stray after he defends him from a Rottweiler and a Doberman. Bug also introduces Reggie to a couple of his friends: an Australian Shepherd named Maggie, and a therapy Great Dane named Hunter, who is in love with Maggie. After a fun night with Bug, Maggie, and Hunter, Reggie finally realizes that Doug does not love him. He teams up with the other strays to get revenge on him by biting off the thing Reggie believes Doug loves the most: his penis.
During the journey back to Doug’s house, the group bonds as they get into several situations, culminating in getting caught by animal control after a hallucinogenic mushroom-induced high causes them to maul a family of rabbits, which they mistake for plushies. However, Hunter also ends up reuniting with Rolf, an old friend of his who is a police dog, though he still lets animal control capture them. During their captivity, Bug admits that he used to have a family of his own but was forced to escape when they tried to euthanize him after he bit the daughter (though he fails to see exactly what he did wrong). In an attempt to escape, Reggie suggests that every dog defecate on the floor at the same time so when the security guard opens it, they can all run out, in which they are successful. After escaping the pound, however, Reggie convinces himself that he is to blame for Doug treating him poorly. This causes Bug to urinate on Reggie's bandana in a fit of anger and Reggie leaves the other strays. Making their way back to the city, Bug, Maggie, and Hunter stumble upon a lost girl scout named Riley Anderson, whom animal control had been searching for recently, and alert Rolf, the other police dogs, and a search and rescue worker to her location.
Reggie returns to Doug's house, and after reminiscing about all the times Doug mistreated him, he finally sees what he was. He confronts and cuts ties with him. However, before leaving, an enraged Doug slams the door in front of him and attempts to get rid of Reggie by slaughtering him with a bat. The other strays arrive and intervene, and, with their help, Reggie successfully bites Doug's penis off. Hunter also defecates in Doug's mouth, and during the altercation, Doug's house and pickup truck are burned down. Afterwards, the strays move on: Hunter returns to being a therapy dog and starts a relationship with Maggie, the latter begins training as a police dog, the Girl Scout adopts Bug, and Reggie remains a stray and chooses to guide new strays, though still spends time with the other dogs often.
In a mid-credit scene, Doug, hospitalized, learns from his doctor that they are unable to reattach his penis, much to his horror.
In August 2019, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller signed a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. [9] In May 2021, Universal acquired the rights to Strays, an adult comedy about dogs written by Dan Perrault, with Lord and Miller attached to produce alongside Erik Feig and Louis Leterrier. The film is a co-production between Picturestart and Rabbit Hole Productions. [10] Filming began in September 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. [11] [12] [13] Production concluded by December 2021. [5]
Strays was released in the United States on August 18, 2023, after being delayed from its original June 9, 2023 date. [14] [15] It was released on digital platforms on September 5, 2023, followed by DVD and Blu-ray releases on October 10, 2023. [16]
As of October 19,2023 [update] , Strays has grossed $24 million in the United States and Canada, and $12 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $36 million. [3] [4]
In the United States and Canada, Strays was released alongside Blue Beetle , and was initially projected to gross $15–17 million from 3,223 theaters in its opening weekend. [2] After making $3.4 million on its first day (including $1.1 million from Thursday night previews), weekend estimates were lowered to $8.5 million. It went on to debut to $8.3 million, finishing in fourth. [17] [18] The film made $4.9 million in its second weekend (a drop of 40%), finishing in sixth. [19]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 53% of 172 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "Crudely effective and effectively crude, Strays is more amusing than hilarious, but this comedy's scattershot humor is partly offset by its surprisingly big heart." [20] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [21] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [17]
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