Joy to the world! The Force has come! That’s right. The long-awaited sequel is finally coming, Star Wars The Force Awakens A.K.A Star Wars Episode Seven. You can go see Episode 7 on December 18th at a theater near you. However, with every light side, there is a dark side. For better or for worse, Alvin and the Chipmunks is receiving another installment (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip). And FOX Studios has decided to release the movie on December 18th as well. One could already assume this match-up isn’t going to go down that well. It’s like making a grenade go up against a nuclear bomb. And speaking of explosives; the troublesome trio of rodents are going to be blown to a galaxy far far away. In layman’s terms, the Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 is going to bomb at the box office in comparison to the greatly anticipated Star Wars movie..

But let’s be honest, would you really expect the Chipmunks to actually compete against pop cultural icons like Han Solo, R2D2, or Chewbacca? Obviously not. If given the choice, I’m pretty sure we’d all go and see Star Wars over the Chipmunks. And besides, Star Wars Episode 7 has been a really, really long awaited sequel. The prequel trilogy of Star Wars wasn’t so widely excepted by critics and many members of the Star Wars fandom. So when it was announced The Force Awakens was being made, the entire fandom must have exploded like the Death Star. Even people who aren’t the biggest fans of Star Wars will probably see Episode 7. We live in an age where superhero movies come out at least 3 times a year. And within the next few years, that’s probably not going to change. I mean have you see the Marvel and DC movie lineup? Seeing a Star Wars movie coming out after 10 years is a breath of fresh air. On the other hand, the Chipmunks were never really that widely excepted by critics to begin with.  Rotten Tomatoes gave the first movie 27%, the second one got 21%, and the third one got 12%.

Now the real question is, why would FOX release Alvin and Chipmunks 4 on the same day as Star Wars Episode 7? Or better yet, why make a fourth Chipmunks movie to begin with? Well FOX may actually somewhat of a good reason for the choice they made. Like I stated before, The Force Awakens is a very highly anticipated film. Possibly the most anticipated movie of 2015. The movie is so anticipated, that when I tried pre-ordering tickets, they were sold out within 15 minutes! Based on that fact, I’d say people will be lining up for light years to see Episode 7. And we all know that when there’s a massive line, there’ll be a massive wait. So with a massive wait, people might try to find another movie to watch in order to pass the time. Ergo, little kids might go and see Alvin and Chipmunks: The Road Chip. In addition, there’s an Alvin and Chipmunks TV show on Nickelodeon. Because of this fact, little kids might be even have more incentive to see the film. However, there’s a few factors that may ruin this theory:

1. People may not be able to find any parking space because of all the people seeing Star Wars.
2.  Even if people are able to find good parking spots, the theater will be packed.
3. There is a TV show on Disney XD called Star Wars Rebels (which is on its second season). Children may have more incentive to see Star Wars Episode 7 because of the success of the TV show.
4. Disney is putting characters from Star Wars Episode 7 into their game Disney Infinity. This may also convince more kids to see Episode 7.
5. Star Wars is more widely known than the Chipmunks. I didn’t even know about them myself before I saw the movie as a kid. And even then, I didn’t like the film that much.
6. Kids have other options of movies to watch such as The Good Dinosaur and Peanuts.

So as you can see, Alvin the Chipmunks will most likely bomb. But the question that you’re still asking is, why was another sequel made in the first place? A rational person would’ve probably stopped making Chipmunk movies after the second one. But like most movie studios, FOX doesn’t care how bad the movie is, as long as they rake in that sweet sweet box office dough. And surprisingly, Alvin and the Chipmunks is a success. Not critically, but financially. I did some research and the numbers don’t lie. IMDb estimates that budget for the first Chipmunks movie was 60 million dollars. In total, the movie made at least $217,326,974 in the United States alone. Worldwide, the movie made about $361,336,633. With that large amount of financial success, it’s no wonder the film got green-lit for a sequel. The other two films had a budget of 75 million. However, with each installment, the numbers dropped. The total gross for the Squeakquel was about $219,614,612. And Chipwrecked barely made two times the amount it took to make the actual film with $133,110,742. So how could they be making a sequel? Well, remember the TV show I mentioned earlier? The TV show could be making FOX studios money along with ad revenue and toys. So the reason FOX keeps on making Chipmunk movies is because they’re pretty cheap to make, and they usually do decently in the box office. But, with Star Wars coming out on the same day as The Road Chip, the Chipmunks are probably finished.

On a final note, Alvin and the Chipmunks is probably going to flop; which is no surprise. FOX would be lucky if it even made a quarter of  the money that it took to make it in the first place. Star Wars Episode 7 is most definitely going to win the box office by a light year. You can bet your life saving that I’m going to see the movie opening weekend (and possibly do a review for the film).  In the end, releasing Alvin and the Chipmunks 4 the same weekend as Star Wars Episode 7 wasn’t the brightest idea. But hey, we’ll just have to wait and see how hard it bombs, or if it even bombs at all.