Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024 Film)

Submission 6,862

About

Harold and the Purple Crayon refers to the 2024 film adaptation of the children's book series Harold and the Purple Crayon. The film was released in August 2024, starring actor Zachary Levi as Harold. Carlos Saldanha directed the film. The plot centers on Harold who possesses a magic purple crayon that can make anything come to life. The film grossed a notoriously low number on its opening weekend, resulting in ridicule and ironic memes made in support of the film, pretending that there was a fandom for it called the Haroldheads. The ironic fandom was similar to Morbius memes about the infamous 2022 Marvel film that had a similarly disastrous release.

History

The film adaption of Harold and the Purple Crayon was originally announced by Sony Pictures in September 2021. The original release date was January 27th, 2023. In October 2022, the film's release date was set back to June 2023. Actors Lil Rel Howery, Zooey Deschanel, and Ravi Patel were announced as cast members in 2022. Director Carlos Saldanha was also hired for the film. The film's release date was later rescheduled for August 2nd, 2024.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

The film's official trailer was uploaded to YouTube^[5] by Sony Pictures Entertainment on March 20th, 2024, amassing over 12.6 million views and 25,000 likes in five months (shown below).

Reception

Film critics panned the movie after its release, like Wall Street Journal^[6] critic Kyle Smith, who wrote, "The film’s effects-first, story-last strategy is a dismal failure. The charming, gentle simplicity of the book, with its childlike art, has been displaced by a mania for digital images and frantic attempts to be funny."

Alternatively, Deadline^[7] critic Damon Wise praised the film, noting that, "star Levi is warm screen presence that kids of all ages will be drawn to, and his charisma carries the film…"

Harold and the Purple Crayon grossed just under $9 million on its opening weekend.^[8] The film's opening weekend was compared to the second weekend of Deadpool & Wolverine which still led in sales at the box office.^[7]

Online Presence

Internet users posted ironic memes about Harold and the Purple Crayon after the film's release in August 2024. For instance, an early viral example was shared by X^[9] user @Parzival_jay on August 3rd, 2024, sharing images of Zachary Levi, captioned, "We have never witnessed a down fall this bad," gaining over 41,000 likes in three days (shown below, left).

Later on August 3rd, X^[10] user @paynushurts tweeted a screenshot of the Rotten Tomatoes page for the film, writing, "Fuck the critics," receiving over 4,200 likes in three days (shown below, right).

On August 4th, 2024, the X^[11] account @DiscussingFilm tweeted the report about Harold and the Purple Crayon grossing $6 million on its opening day. The tweet was quoted by many users who joked about the poor performance, like X^[12] user @hdwmovies on August 5th, who wrote, "Hold strong Haroldheads…" amassing over 46,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On August 4th, 2024, X^[13] user @koreybruhyt posted a Morbius Sweep meme showing Harold, gaining over 58,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Similar jokes and memes surfaced on TikTok, like a video posted by TikToker^[14] @matt221912 on August 4th, 2024, showing an empty theater and text reading, "Friday premier of Harold and the Purple Crayon is LIT," gaining over 386,100 plays and 47,700 likes in two days (shown below).