Ryan Reynolds' $587 Million Smash Comedy Hits Hulu Sooner Than You Think

Alright, here’s something for the Ryan Reynolds fans and folks who love animated mayhem—you’ll be able to stream The Croods on Hulu starting April 1. (No joke, that’s the actual date.) Yes, in case you forgot, Reynolds isn’t just Deadpool—he's also been a cartoon caveman.

So, what’s the big deal?

The Croods might not have the cult cred of some other animated fare, but this 2013 DreamWorks movie turned out to be a serious box office dark horse. It scooped up a whopping $587 million worldwide—pretty great for a stone-age family movie with a budget somewhere between $135 and $175 million. And it didn’t just stop there; The Croods exploded into a little prehistoric franchise. (More on that in a second.)

Casting: A Not-so-secret Marvel Squad

Reynolds voices Guy, the wandering, idea-happy caveboy who shakes up the Crood family’s rigid way of life. He’s joined by Nicolas Cage (yep, Ghost Rider himself) as the perpetually-neurotic patriarch Grug, and Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man movies) as Eep, Grug’s adventure-hungry daughter.

The voice cast rounds out with Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman, Clark Duke, Chris Sanders (who also co-directed), and Randy Thom. Basically, it’s a surprisingly stacked ensemble—one of those vocal lineups that actually paid off.

The Plot, in a Nutshell

The Croods are a cave family stuck in their ways, mostly thanks to Grug’s ‘never leave the cave unless food is required’ philosophy. Their entire world gets literally rocked by an earthquake, forcing them out into the unknown and into the path of Guy—the slick, inventive teenager with risky ideas about fire and, you know, not hiding in a hole forever.

Naturally, sparks fly: Grug is both threatened and outsmarted by Guy, and it gets extra tense when daughter Eep decides Guy is basically prehistoric boyfriend material. There’s a lot of running, slapstick, family drama, and some surprisingly clever gags about, well, not dying horribly in the Pliocene.

From Box Office Blowout to Franchise Machine

• The Croods (2013): Premiered at Berlin before hitting theaters in March, blew past $587M global.
• The Croods: A New Age (2020): Sequel earned $215M on a much smaller $65M budget. Not too shabby for a follow-up.
• TV Spinoffs Galore: Dawn of the Croods and The Croods: Family Tree kept the torch burning on the small screen.
• Video Games: Yup, including the wonderfully-titled The Croods: Prehistoric Party! and another simply called The Croods.

Crowd and Critic Response: Mostly Good, With Some ‘Meh’

Over on Rotten Tomatoes, The Croods sits at a quite solid 71% from critics and an even better 77% from regular viewers. That’s the kind of score that means ‘Hey, this is actually fun!’ Metacritic, on the other hand, hands out a more lukewarm 55 (translation: yeah, it’s a movie), with user ratings at a respectable 7.1 out of 10.

Here’s a bit of trivia: John Cleese is actually credited with helping to whip up the original story—so if you thought some lines sounded a bit Monty Python-adjacent, you weren’t imagining it.

In Case You Want to Watch in Spanish…

Hulu’s rolling out both the English and Spanish-language versions. So, no matter what language you prefer your prehistoric shenanigans in, you’re covered.

Hulu drops The Croods on April 1. If you like oddball family comedies or just want to see Ryan Reynolds as a smirky teenage caveman, you’re probably going to have a good time.