Tom and Kate Baker are raising twelve children in a small town in Illinois. When Tom is offered a job coaching the football team at his alma mater, the family must move to Evanston. The children accept the change reluctantly: the new house is tense, and school is no easier. Things grow more complicated when Kate, who has written a book about family life, leaves on a tour to promote it, and Tom is left in charge of a household far too large for him to manage alone. Balancing his job with the demands of home, he must find a way to keep his family together. The film blends everyday situations with broad family comedy.

How it was made

Cheaper by the Dozen is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name, and both were inspired by the semi-autobiographical book by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. Apart from a passing mention of the Gilbreth name, the film has little connection to the source material. Shawn Levy directed, and also appears briefly as a reporter. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt lead the cast, alongside a group of young actors including Hilary Duff, Tom Welling and Piper Perabo. Christophe Beck composed the music and Jonathan Brown shot the film. Produced by Robert Simonds, Ben Myron and Michael Barnathan, it is built around slapstick episodes and scenes of family life in a house full of children.

Reception and legacy

The film was released on December 25, 2003, by 20th Century Fox and grossed about 190 million dollars worldwide against a 40 million dollar budget. Critics were divided: Metacritic gave it a mixed-to-average score, while audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an A-. Roger Ebert praised it as lighthearted fun, though others, including Variety's Robert Koehler, found its tone uneven, swinging between sentimentality and gross-out humor. It was followed by a sequel in 2005, and a new version appeared on Disney+ in 2022.