''Blockers'' is a 2018 American sex comedy film directed by Kay Cannon in her directorial debut, and written by Brian and Jim Kehoe, and starring

John Cena John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American actor and professional wrestler. As a wrestler, he has been signed to WWE , where he is the current WWE Championship, Undisputed WWE Champion in his record 14th reign, which is ...

, Leslie Mann, and

Ike Barinholtz Ike Barinholtz (born February 18, 1977) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his starring roles in the comedy series '' MADtv'' (2002–2007), '' Eastbound & Down'' (2012), '' The Mindy Project'' (2012–2017), '' Bless the Hart ...

with supporting roles by Kathryn Newton, Geraldine Viswanathan, Gideon Adlon, Graham Phillips, Miles Robbins, Jimmy Bellinger,

Colton Dunn Colton Dunn (born June 30, 1977) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Garrett McNeil on the NBC workplace comedy '' Superstore'' (2015–2021), his work on Comedy Central sketch comedy series '' Key & Peele ...

, Sarayu Blue,

Gary Cole Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American actor. He began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. His breakout role was playing Jack 'Nighthawk' Killian in the NBC series '' M ...

Gina Gershon Gina L. Gershon (; born June 10, 1962) is an American actress and singer. She has starred in such films as ''Cocktail'' (1988), ''Red Heat'' (1988), '' Showgirls'' (1995), '' Bound'' (1996), '' Face/Off'' (1997), '' The Insider'' (1999), '' Dem ...

, June Diane Raphael, and Hannibal Buress. It tells the story of a trio of parents who try to stop their respective daughters from losing their

virginity Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereo ...

on prom night. The title of the film is a reference to the act of " cockblocking", with marketing materials displaying a

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

(also known as a cock) above the title. The film premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

on March 10, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 6, 2018, by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

. It grossed $94 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its "humor and performances", as well as for "intelligence and empathy" not often found in the genre.

Plot

Single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include death, divorce, break-up, abandonment, bec ...

Lisa takes her young daughter, Julie, to her first day of kindergarten. She watches as Julie is befriended by two other girls, Kayla and Sam. Kayla's father Mitchell and Sam's father Hunter introduce themselves and the three become close friends after seeing the bond between their children. Twelve years later, Julie shares with Kayla and Sam that she plans to lose her virginity to her boyfriend Austin on their upcoming

prom A promenade dance or prom is a formal dance party for graduating high school students at the end of the school year. Students participating in the prom will typically vote for a ''prom king'' and ''prom queen''. Other students may be honored ...

night. Kayla pledges to do so as well, though on a casual basis with her lab partner, Connor. Sam, a

closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for LGBTQ people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometime ...

lesbian who is unsure about her feelings, also joins the pact and arranges to attend the prom with the harmless Chad. Lisa throws a pre-party for the parents and kids. The girls and their dates then head to the prom, texting each other about their sex pact. The three parents hear Julie's laptop and intercept the messages. Hunter deciphers their

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

codes and uncovers their plan. Lisa and Mitchell rush to stop their daughters; Hunter tries to dissuade them from interfering and shares his intuition that Sam is gay, but upon seeing her force herself to kiss Chad, he becomes determined to stop her from doing something she doesn't want to do. Having been told that the after-party would be at Austin's house, the parents go there but find only Austin's parents Ron and Cathy engaging in sex games. Ron reveals that the after-party is at a lake house but refuses to give the address. The trio realizes that Mitchell's wife Marcie may have it and retrieve the address against her wishes, as she supports Kayla's right to make her own decisions. However, the parents are unable to catch their daughters when the partygoers disperse to avoid the police. As the group struggles to find their daughters, it becomes clear that each parent has their own motivation: Mitchell is in denial over his daughter growing up, Hunter feels guilty for neglecting Sam during his bitter

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

from her cheating mother, and Lisa is struggling to let go of her only child who secretly plans to leave for UCLA against her wishes; Lisa is confronted with this when Julie angrily states that she's going to UCLA to get away from Lisa's clinginess. Knowing that Austin and Ron have been texting, the parents return to Ron's house to steal his phone. Encountering the couple playing a blindfolded sex game, Hunter and Mitchell are forced to play along as Lisa steals the phone, which reveals that the girls are at a hotel. There, a drunk Sam goes to bed with Chad but decides she does not want to have sex. Kayla and Connor go to bed, but she also changes her mind and they limit their intimacy to Connor performing

oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth). Cunnilingus is oral sex performed on the vu ...

on Kayla. Mitch finds Kayla with Connor and throws him against the wall, infuriating Kayla. Mitch confesses his struggles with her becoming a woman, his good intentions ultimately making amends with Kayla. Hunter finds Sam and they also share a tender moment, where he reveals that a good night was the best he could give her in return for his neglect. Sam comes out to her father, who is deeply moved at being the first person she told. Lisa sneaks into Julie and Austin's room and, realizing how much they clearly love each other, leaves unnoticed. On her father's advice, Sam comes out to Julie and Kayla, who embrace her and affirm their lifelong friendships. They leave Sam with her crush Angelica who shares a romantic kiss with her. Mitch, Lisa and Hunter acknowledge their own friendships have been strengthened and drink to their daughters' futures. Three months later, the parents celebrate the departure of Sam, Kayla, Julie and Austin as they depart on a road trip to drop off Austin and Julie at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. As they leave, Lisa starts receiving the girls' group text, filled with plans to use drugs and have unprotected sex. The parents panic until the girls text that it was a prank, and send a final "I love you" to them.

Cast

* Leslie Mann as Lisa Decker, Julie's single mother. *

as Hunter Lockwood, Sam's absentee divorced father. *

as Mitchell Mannes, Kayla's headstrong father. * Hannibal Buress as Frank, Brenda's husband and Sam's stepfather. * June Diane Raphael as Brenda Lockwood, Sam's mother and Hunter's ex-wife. * Kathryn Newton as Julie Decker, Lisa's daughter. ** Anniston Almond as 6-year-old Julie ** Audrey Casson as 12-year-old Julie *

as Ron, Cathy's husband and Austin's father. *

as Cathy, Ron's wife and Austin's mother. *

as Rudy, a likable but overeager limo driver. * Gideon Adlon as Sam Lockwood, Hunter's daughter. ** Hannah Goergen as 6-year-old Sam ** Aubrey Michele Katz as 12-year-old Sam * Geraldine Viswanathan as Kayla Mannes, Mitchell and Marcie's daughter. ** Noor Anna Maher as 6-year-old Kayla ** Madeline Paris Erwin as 12-year-old Kayla * Graham Phillips as Austin, Julie's boyfriend. * Jimmy Bellinger as Chad, Sam's fedora-wearing prom date. * Miles Robbins as Connor Aldrich, Kayla's prom date. * Sarayu Blue as Marcie Mannes, Mitchell's wife and Kayla's mother. * Ramona Young as Angelica, Sam's crush. * Andrew Lopez as Jake Donahue * Jake Picking as Kyler * T.C. Carter as Jayden

Production

The film was produced under the working title ''The Pact'', referring to the girls' agreement to lose their virginity.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

on the film began on May 2, 2017, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. During filming,

suffered a neck injury while performing a falling stunt.

Release

''Blockers'' was released by

on April 6, 2018.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 3, 2018. on June 19, 2018, The film was released on Digital HD on the same date.

Reception

Box office

''Blockers'' grossed $60.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $33.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $94 million, against a production budget of $21 million. In the United States and Canada, ''Blockers'' was released alongside ''

A Quiet Place ''A Quiet Place'' is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror film directed by John Krasinski. The screenplay was written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods from a story they conceived, with contributions by Krasinski after he joined the project. T ...

'', '' Chappaquiddick'' and '' The Miracle Season'', and was projected to gross $16–20 million from 3,379 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $7.8 million on its first day (including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews). It went on to debut to $20.6 million, finishing third, behind ''A Quiet Place'' ($50 million) and '' Ready Player One'' ($25.1 million). In its second weekend the film dropped 47.6% to $10.8 million, finishing fourth.

Critical response

On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''Blockers'' puts a gender-swapped spin on the teen sex comedy – one elevated by strong performances, a smartly funny script, and a surprisingly enlightened perspective." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 76% overall positive score. Brian Lowry of '' CNN.com'' found that "the movie gets by on sheer energy" and praised director Kay Cannon for creating "some truly blue sequences and sight gags that yield explosive laughs ndlargely compensate for the arid patches, as do the warm/fuzzy exchanges, which smartly play off the idea of raising your children and then trusting them enough to let go." Describing ''Blockers'' as "absurd and funny", Amy Nicholson of ''

Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...

'' favorably compared screenwriters Brian and Jim Kehoe to '' American Pie'' directors

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, and Christine. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), Nigerian autho ...

and Paul Weitz as "brothers trying to do right by the sexual politics of the time." Joshua Rothkopf of '' Time Out'' gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "a wonderfully crude film... in which the overall vibe is sweet" and a "hilarious, parents'-eye view of teenage sexuality." Adam Graham of ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'' called the film "highly dubious and not very funny," and stated that the film "awkwardly tries to balance gross-out gags with tender, warm-and-fuzzy moments. It's a tough trick to pull off, and ''Blockers'' gets stuffed at every turn." David Sims of ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' stated that the film "works because of the time it invests in its teenaged characters. Each is a delight, particularly the supremely chilled-out Kayla (who decides to lose her virginity largely on a whim) and the more introverted Sam (who knows she's gay but hasn't quite figured out how to tell her friends and family)." Ann Hornaday from ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' wrote: "The underlying values of "Blockers" are refreshingly healthy and affirming, proclaimed not only by Kayla's pointedly levelheaded mom ( Sarayu Blue)—in a fiery speech about the double standards and the dubious politics of policing female sexuality—but by the girls themselves."

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American writer. He is a former columnist and film critic for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'', where he wrote for 39 years dating back to 1986 until his departure in 2025. He co-hosted the television s ...

of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

'' gave the film two out of four stars, giving credit to the cast but saying they were not given much to do: "Despite the best efforts of reliable comedic veterans Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz, not to mention a game and always likable John Cena...''Blockers'' becomes less interesting and less funny as the onscreen hijinks grow more outlandish and stupid and demeaning and crotch-oriented." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film two-and-a-half stars, saying that it is "the kind of comedy one could stumble upon late at night on HBO and thoroughly enjoy, but it strains under the weight of its tonal inconsistencies in a movie theater."

Accolades

In 2019, the film was nominated for a

GLAAD Media Award The GLAAD Media Award is a US accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding portrayals of LGBTQ people and the issues that affect their lives. In addition to film and television, the Awards ...

for Outstanding Film – Wide Release. ''Blockers'' was among 20 of 2018's 100 highest-grossing films awarded The ReFrame Stamp for recognition in "standout, gender-balanced" films, and also one out of four Stamp recipients with a female director.

Music

The single " Love Myself" by

Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She had her breakthrough with the western film ''True Grit (2010 film), True Grit'' (2010), which earned her List of awards and nominations received by H ...

appears twice in the film. In her review of ''Blockers'', ''Insider'' writer Kim Renfro wrote, "The anthem carried throughout the movie, Hailee Steinfeld's 'Love Myself', drives the message home: 'I love me, gonna love myself, no I don't need anybody else.

References

External links

* {{Point Grey Pictures 2018 films 2018 comedy films 2018 directorial debut films 2018 LGBTQ-related films 2010s buddy comedy films 2010s coming-of-age comedy films 2010s female buddy films 2010s sex comedy films 2010s teen comedy films American buddy comedy films American coming-of-age comedy films American female buddy films American sex comedy films American teen comedy films American teen LGBTQ-related films DMG Entertainment films 2010s English-language films Films about families Films about proms Films about virginity Films produced by Seth Rogen Films set in the 2000s Films set in the 2010s Films set in 2018 Films set in Chicago Films shot in Atlanta Good Universe films Lesbian-related films LGBTQ-related buddy comedy films LGBTQ-related coming-of-age comedy films LGBTQ-related sex comedy films Films about juvenile sexuality Point Grey Pictures films Teen buddy films Teen sex comedy films Universal Pictures films Films produced by Evan Goldberg 2010s American films English-language sex comedy films English-language buddy comedy films