The Emoji Movie is a 2017 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Directed by Tony Leondis, who wrote the script with Eric Siegel and Mike White, it stars the voices of T.J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Steven Wright, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake T. Austin, Christina Aguilera, Sofía Vergara, Sean Hayes, and Sir Patrick Stewart. Based on emojis, the film centers on a multi-expressional Gene (Miller), who lives in a teenager's (Austin) smartphone, having a journey to become a normal meh form like his parents (Wright and Coolidge). The Emoji Movie premiered on July 23, 2017 at the Regency Village Theatre and was theatrically released in the United States five days later. The movie was a commercial success after grossing $217 million worldwide against its $50 million production budget, but was universally lambasted by critics, who criticized its script, humor, use of product placement, tone, voice performances, lack of originality, and plot, with negative comparisons and similarities to other animated films, especially Wreck-It Ralph (2012), The Lego Movie (2014) and Inside Out (2015). The Emoji Movie gained four awards at the 38th Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and three technical categories, being the first ever animated film to do so. It is frequently cited as the worst film of 2017.