Production
Show Dogs began filming on November 28, 2016 at
Pinewood Studio Wales in
Great Britain, and also took place in
Las Vegas.
[4]
Reception
Box office
As of June 3, 2018,
Show Dogs has grossed $14.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $2.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $16.9 million.
[2]
In the United States and Canada,
Show Dogs was released on May 18, 2018 alongside
Deadpool 2 and
Book Club, and was projected to gross $7–9 million from 3,145 theaters in its opening weekend.
[5] It ended up debuting to $6 million, finishing sixth at the box office.
[6] It dropped 49% in its second weekend to $3.1 million, finishing seventh.
[7]
Critical response
On review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 17% based on 52 reviews with an average rating of 3.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "
Show Dogs may entertain very young viewers, but for anyone else, it threatens the cinematic equivalent of a rolled-up newspaper on the snout."
[8] On
Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 31 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
[9] Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
[6]
Christy Lemire of
RogerEbert.com gave the film 0.5/4 stars and said that from "the barely-there characters to the cheesy visual effects to the flat attempts at knowingly corny laughs, this reeks of the kind of material you'd have the misfortune of discovering in the bargain bin under the merciless fluorescent lights of your local soulless superstore. It is bleak indeed. Your family deserves better."
[10] Peter Hartlaub of the
San Francisco Chronicle gave the film 0/4 stars and strongly criticized, among other things, the dated production, the "terrible" jokes, and the virtually nonexistent sense of pacing, ultimately concluding that "
Show Dogs is really bad, even for a talking-dog movie" and that "we all deserve a better live-action talking-dog movie than this."
[11]
In contrast, Michael Rechtshaffen of
The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a generally positive review, writing: "...thanks to some creative character casting and a self-aware script that isn't averse to poking fun at itself,
Show Dogs emerges as a high-concept family comedy that manages to avoid being taken for the runt of the litter, even if it doesn't really bring anything fresh and different to the arena."
[12] Similarly, film critic and historian
Gregg Turkington gave the film five out of a possible five, saying "...whether you're six years old, or 66 years old, you're gonna love this movie."
[13]
Child grooming controversy and resulting re-cut
"The movie's solution to Max's discomfort with the inspection is not to empower him to escape it somehow; it's to have him learn to check out mentally while he endures it, and to make no outward sign of his humiliation. It is not paranoid to say that this is a bad message for kids."
—Ruth Graham
[14]
The film was criticized for normalizing
child grooming based on a plot point which depicts the canine main character being forced to have his genitals fondled by a dog show judge without consent. In the film, other characters "teach" him not to think about it and to go to his "zen place" when that happens. Initially, in a
test screening for the film, online magazine
Macaroni Kid's Terina Maldonado said "With the
#MeToo movement and all the talk of sexual predators in Hollywood, I couldn't help but think this message, that is blatantly in the open for adults to see, but over a child's understanding, is meant to groom children to be open to having people touch their privates, even though they don't want it."
[15]. Spurred on by this review, other professional reviewers agreed that the child grooming implications were "disturbing and serious". Bob Hoose of
Focus on the Family's enertainment guide "Plugged in" described the content in his review but did not ascribe motive, although he did not disagree with Maldonado's interpretation.
[16][17] Slate's Ruth Graham said that the genital fondling subplot was "darker" than the light-hearted humor in the rest of the film.
[14] In response, Global Road Entertainment, the film's distributor, announced they were re-cutting the film and resubmitting it to theaters in time for its second weekend. Speaking to
Deadline Hollywood, the company said:
"Responding to concerns raised by moviegoers and some specific organizations, Global Road Entertainment has decided to remove two scenes from the film
Show Dogs that some have deemed not appropriate for children. The company takes these matters very seriously and remains committed to providing quality entertainment for the intended audiences based on the film’s rating. We apologize to anybody who feels the original version of
Show Dogs sent an inappropriate message. The revised version of the film will be available for viewing nationwide starting this weekend."
[18]
Also, the film's co-writer
Max Botkin said he did not write those scenes and that the original script was "heavily rewritten by 13 other writers". He also went on to strongly condemn the themes in question.
[17]
However, nonprofit organization
National Center on Sexual Exploitation still took offense at the newly cut version of the film, pointing out that it retains many of the controversial touching scenes and strongly advising parents and caregivers to not take children to this film.
