Did the ‘Buddy’ Horror Movie Trick Parents Into Bringing Kids?

Buddy, the R-rated horror movie about a homicidal cartoon unicorn, has become one of 2026’s surprise box-office hits. It has also exposed a familiar problem. Some parents apparently brought young children to see it without knowing what kind of movie they had purchased tickets for. The orange mascot slasher opened August 28 with an R rating for bloody violence, drug content, and language involving children. Despite playing on only 1,258 screens, Buddy earned $5.36 million, more than twice its $2.5 million tracking estimate. Its second weekend beat the first after expanding to 1,771 theaters. That success came with reports of children as young as eight attending screenings. According to TheMirror, some parents blamed theaters after discovering the movie was not family entertainment. But the rating was clear, and the premise was hardly hidden. A slasher parody of Barney was never meant to be a children’s matinee. Moviegoers and theater employees said this kind of confusion has happened for years, often because adults see a cartoon, mascot, or familiar character name and stop paying attention. “Some people just pay zero attention,” one person wrote while recalling parents who tried to ...