Paramount Will Give ‘Under The Boardwalk’ A Limited Theatrical Release On October 27

Paramount Pictures will launch a limited theatrical release of David Soren’s animated musical comedy Under the Boardwalk starting Friday, October 27, before making the film broadly available for purchase on PVOD digital platforms (Amazon, Apple, Vudu, etc.) on November 7.

The studio was unable to provide further details to Cartoon Brew about theater counts for Under the Boardwalk. It only confirmed a limited release in select theaters.

Paramount’s CEO Brian Robbins had previously told a media outlet that Under the Boardwalk would go straight-to-streaming on Paramount+. “We’re not going to release an expensive original animated movie and just pray people will come,” he explained a few months ago. This reversal of strategy is therefore welcome news for animation fans who wanted to see the film on the bigscreen, as had been originally intended when former Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria greenlit the film.

Under the Boardwalk was announced in 2019 under the title Jersey Crabs and billed as a Grease-like musical on the Jersey Shore starring crabs. A July 22, 2022, release date was later announced and passed by.

Now, days before the film’s debut, Under the Boardwalk doesn’t appear on the Paramount Pictures Movies website and the trailer still hasn’t been released, although a trailer was inadvertently posted (and quickly removed) on the Paramount New Zealand Youtube channel a few weeks ago.

Under the Boardwalk is directed by David Soren (Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Turbo) from a script that he co-wrote with Lorene Scafaria. While official credits for the film have yet to be made public it is known that DNEG Animation (Nimona, Entergalactic) provided the animation production. Troy Saliba was the animation director at DNEG.

Here is a synopsis of the film, published on DNEG’s website: “The musical comedy follows the hermit crabs who live under the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore. When Armen (a land crab townie) falls in love with Ramona (a sea crab tourist), tensions between their friends and families rise. But when a storm casts the duo far from home, their love will lead them on an epic adventure that unites the divided community.”