Eddie Murphy fans won’t be able to watch his 2003 slapstick comedy on Netflix starting next month. The film follows two fathers who recently lost their jobs and are unable to find new ones, which prompts them to open a day care.
Daddy Day Care leaves Netflix in April
Daddy Day Care is leaving Netflix on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
The story centers on Charlie Hinton, who, along with his friend Phil and hundreds of others, is let go from his job at a local food company. Despite his best efforts, he is unable to land a job. Things worsen when Charlie is forced to withdraw his son, Ben, from preschool due to financial strain. Desperate to make ends meet, he teams up with Phil to open a daycare, which they name Daddy Day Care. When their business grows in popularity, they face challenges from a competing day care.
Steve Carr directed the film with a script by Geoff Rodkey. The cast features Eddie Murphy as Charlie, Jeff Garlin as Phil, Steve Zahn as Marvin, Regina King as Kim, and Kevin Nealon as Bruce, among others.
Released on May 9, 2003, Daddy Day Care had a fairly good run at the box office. It earned roughly $164.4 million globally on a reported budget of $60 million, per Box Office Mojo. However, the film received harsh reviews, resulting in low ratings on review-aggregator sites.
On Rotten Tomatoes, 129 critics gave it an average approval rating of 28%, and over 250,000 users’ ratings average at 49%. Meanwhile, Metacritic shows a low weighted-average score of 39 from critics and a 5.4 from users.
Despite the low rating, the commercial success paved the way for two sequels. The first sequel, Daddy Day Camp, debuted in theaters in August 2007. It was followed by Grand-Daddy Day Care in February 2019, over a decade later. Both sequels feature Charlie, though the role was portrayed by different actors.
Netflix subscribers have a week to stream the original film on the platform before it exits next Wednesday.
Originally reported by Harsha Panduranga on ComingSoon.
