| Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules | |
| Director: | David Bowers |
| Screenplay: | Jeff Judah Gabe Sachs |
| Starring: | Zachary Gordon Devon Bostick Rachael Harris Robert Capron Steve Zahn |
| Music: | Edward Shearmur |
| Cinematography: | Jack N. Green |
| Editing: | Troy Takaki |
| Studio: | |
| Distributor: | 20th Century Fox |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $18-21 million[2] |
| Gross: | $72.5 million[3] |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 American comedy film[4] directed by David Bowers in his live-action directorial debut and based on Jeff Kinney's 2008 book of the same name. It stars Zachary Gordon, Devon Bostick, Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List. The film is the second installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, following Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010), and follows the relationship between seventh grader Greg Heffley (Gordon) and his older brother, Rodrick (Bostick).
Due to its success, a sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid was announced in May 2010. Thor Freudenthal, who directed the first film, was replaced by Bowers. Principal photography began in August 2010.
Rodrick Rules was released on March 25, 2011, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided on its humor, but was a box office success, grossing $72.5 million worldwide against a budget of $18–21 million. A sequel, titled Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, was released on August 3, 2012, and an animated adaptation of the book was released on December 2, 2022.
Right before Greg Heffley leaves on his first day of seventh grade, Susan, who writes a parenting column in the local newspaper, tells him and Rodrick that they need to spend more time together, and incentivizes them with board game money. When Greg returns home, a local talent show is advertised on TV, and Rodrick sees it as the big break for his band, Löded Diper. At church the following Sunday, Rodrick stains Greg's pants with chocolate, humiliating him, causing a public scuffle between them, ruining Susan's reputation and getting Frank upset with them.
As punishment, Susan, Frank, and Manny go on a trip to Rockin' Rapids without Greg and Rodrick, leaving them home for the weekend to work on their differences; they are also instructed not to invite anyone over. Ignoring this, Rodrick throws a wild party which Greg and Rowley end up participating in. The next morning, Greg and Rodrick receive a voicemail from Susan and Frank, informing them that they will be returning early from their trip due to Manny being ill, prompting them to hastily clean up the trashed house. They find that someone wrote "Rodrick Rules" on the bathroom door in permanent marker. Greg gets the idea to replace it with the door to the basement. However, after their family gets home, they realize that the replacement door does not have a lock on it.
Rodrick tells Greg to deny everything, but Susan soon realizes the lock is gone and confronts Greg over it, as Rodrick refuses to tell the truth. Greg confesses that Rodrick had people over, but lies, saying it was only a band practice and begs Susan not to punish Rodrick, believing it would ruin their improving relationship. So, she agrees to this, and Rodrick, believing Greg kept their secret, gains respect for him. They start spending more time together, and Rodrick gives Greg advice on school and girls, even though most of it backfires.
One night, Frank plans to show a slideshow of his civil war figurines to Susan's editors of the paper, who are visiting the Heffley household, but he ends up finding pictures of Rodrick's party. Susan's reputation is ruined and Frank is upset with them again. Greg is grounded for two weeks with no video games, while Rodrick is grounded for a month and forbidden from participating in the talent show, which leaves him distraught. Having learned that Greg partially admitted the truth to Susan earlier on, Rodrick states that they may be brothers, but will never be friends.
Greg and Rodrick are punished further by being forced to spend the weekend with their grandfather at his retirement home, much to their dismay. However, Greg runs into Holly Hills, his new classmate whom he has a crush on, who is visiting her grandmother; she also turns out to be the middle child between a malicious older sibling and spoiled younger one, so she and Greg become good friends.
The next week, the Heffleys go to see the talent show anyway, where Rodrick finds out that he has been kicked out of his own band by Bill Walter, a guitarist he recently recruited, and Rowley is not able to perform his magic act due to his karate classmate, Scotty Douglas, having stage fright. Having witnessed the entire conflict and feeling sorry for Rodrick, Greg strikes a deal with Susan, that he will stand in as Rowley's assistant if she lets Rodrick perform, which she agrees to. Despite multiple mishaps, "the Remarkable Rowley" is praised by the audience, including Holly, believing the act is actually a comedy skit and the mistakes are intentional, but they aren't as impressed by Löded Diper until Susan starts dancing at the edge of the stage, prompting the crowd to join in. Frank tapes the footage of her dancing and he and Greg agree to keep it a secret. Rodrick kicks Bill out of the band in retaliation and reconciles with Greg.
See main article: List of Diary of a Wimpy Kid characters.
Talks of a sequel were announced after the release of the first, but was not officially announced until May 12, 2010, announcing that it would be released on March 25, 2011.[5]
Brad Simpson stated he anticipated a sequel movie if the first film is a success. "Our writing staff are writing a sequel right now, "Rodrick Rules," which would be based on the second book"..."And, you know, we hope that the people to see a second movie, so that we are in position of going again right away and making another film. I certainly know that the fans would like to see all the books made into movies."
Fox 2000 greenlit the sequel with Zachary Gordon returning as Greg Heffley. Steve Zahn (Frank Heffley) and Rachael Harris (Susan Heffley) also returned. The film's screenplay was written by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah. Director Thor Freudenthal was replaced by director David Bowers (director of Flushed Away by Aardman, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, and the film adaptation of anime cybernetic superhero kid Astro Boy). A few new characters appeared in the film, including Peyton List as Holly Hills. The website created for the first was updated for the sequel featuring pictures of the cast and a short synopsis of the film.
Principal photography began in August 2010, with filming taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia and New Westminster, British Columbia from August 23 to October 27, 2010.[6] The mall scene was filmed at Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver.[7] The roller rink scene was filmed at the PNE Agrodome, due to Vancouver lacking a real roller rink.
The trailer was shown with Gulliver's Travels on December 25, 2010. It was later online on January 3, 2011. A poster was released there after on January 14, 2011. In February 2011, an exclusive online-only trailer was released on the "Wimpy Kid Movie" YouTube channel, officialwimpmovie. Due to the success of the first film in Singapore, the film was released there eight days before the US release on March 17, 2011. It was released in Brazil on September 16, 2011.[8] A TV spot of the movie was released in March 2011.
The film was released on a stand-alone DVD, a special edition double DVD pack, and a Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy combo pack on June 21, 2011. One of the bonus shorts was shown during iParty with Victorious on Nickelodeon at 8:00 PM on June 11, 2011.
The film made $7.3 million on its opening day, ranking #2 behind Sucker Punch. It managed to rank #1 in the weekend box office.[9] In the UK, it debuted at #3 in the weekend box office behind and The Hangover Part II.The film eventually grossed $52,698,535 in the US and Canada and $19,718,859 in other countries for a worldwide total of $72,417,394.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 47% based on 99 reviews and an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Moderately witty and acceptably acted, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 isn't much worse than the first installment." On Metacritic, it has a score of 51 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[11]
Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review saying, "Director David Bowers keeps things peppy and brightly lighted, but its swiftest pleasures come from moment-seizing cast members." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it a positive review saying, "A little less wimpy, gives value lessons to the watchers from the cast, and still pretty funny" and a B rating. Pete Hammond of Boxoffice magazine gave it a mixed review stating "Even better than the first edition, in its own sitcom-ish ways." However, Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave it a negative review, stating "You can't fault the filmmakers for reshaping a diary into a cohesive film. You can however, fault them for taking one of the great antiheroes in preteen literature and turning him into, well, an even wimpier kid."[12]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Young Artist Award | Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actor | Zachary Gordon | [13] | |
| Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor | Karan Brar | ||||
| Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actor | Robert Capron | ||||
| Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress | Laine MacNeil | ||||
| Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actor Ten and Under | Connor & Owen Fielding | ||||
| Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Actress Ten and Under | Dalila Bela |
A sequel, titled Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, was released on August 3, 2012. The film concluded the trilogy.
See main article: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2022 film).
On October 23, 2021, Jeff Kinney revealed that sequels to the 2021 Diary of a Wimpy Kid reboot film for Disney+ are already in development.[14] [15] On Disney+ Day 2021, Kinney revealed that the first sequel, based on Rodrick Rules, is set to be released in 2022. A poster was released on September 12, 2022, announcing the film's release date of December 2, 2022.[16]