Is ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ Available to Stream? When Will it Be Available on Netflix, Disney+?
“Lyle Lyle Crocodile,” a live-action/animation hybrid movie musical based on a popular children’s book is hitting theaters on Friday, Oct. 7. The film features the vocal stylings of pop star Shawn Mendes as titular croc and original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — the Tony, Grammy, and Oscar-winning songwriting team behind “Dear Evan Hansen,” “The Greatest Showman,” and “La La Land.” The film’s human cast is led by Javier Bardem, Scott McNairy, and Constance Wu.
Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, the movie is based on the children’s book character created by Bernard Waber, and is drawn from the 1962 book “The House on East 88th Street.” The plot features a family (McNairy, Wu, and Winslow Fegley) moving into a new house in Manhattan, only to discover that the eponymous singing crocodile is living in the attic. He’d been left there by a magician/huckster (Bardem) who dreamed of a Lyle-based stage act.
Early reviews have been mostly positive, review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes currently assigns the film a fresh rating at 67%.
Check out a trailer for “Lyle Lyle Crocodile”:
If the silliness of the premise has you excited about seeing the film, but don’t want to cart the entire family to the movie theater, you might be wondering when “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” will be available to stream. Currently, the film is a theatrical release only, and there has been no announcement of a streaming release date. But we think we know where the movie will land once it does stream.
“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is being distributed by Sony Pictures, and because of that studio's deal with Netflix, it will land on the world’s largest streaming service first. However, due to another deal, Sony’s films go to Disney-owned streaming services next, after 18 months, and because “Lyle” is a family-oriented movie, it would likely land on Disney+ and not Hulu. However, it’s possible that Disney+ and Hulu will have merged by the time “Lyle” is ready to head to the House of Mouse.
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
When the Primm family moves to New York City, their young son Josh struggles to adapt to his new school and new friends. All of that changes when he discovers Lyle — a singing crocodile who loves baths, caviar and great music — living in the attic of his new home. But when Lyle’s existence is threatened by evil neighbor Mr. Grumps, the Primms must band together to show the world that family can come from the most unexpected places.
As for the timing, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Anthony J. Vinciquerra spoke last month about Sony’s windowing strategy, which can give us some clues about when “Lyle” might end up streaming.
“Some films, we’ve had less than 45 days, not a lot, but films that weren’t doing great in the theater, we [pulled] out because it wasn’t helping the theaters, or it wasn’t helping us so why not go to the other windows,” he said. “But 45 days does feel like the right number for the majority of films, but you’ll see longer and shorter [windows from Sony], I think.”
However, unlike with other studios that are part of a corporate structure that also includes an in-house streaming service, 45 days does not mean that this singing croc will hit Netflix by Thanksgiving. Instead, Sony will first make the film available for premium video-on-demand (PVOD), meaning that families will be able to rent or purchase the film digitally during the holidays. From there, the window for “Lyle” to land on Netflix will depend on how well it does in theaters and on demand. A rough estimate would put the movie on the world’s largest streamer in late winter or early spring in 2023.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.