CoComelon began as a YouTube show designed for toddlers. It has since expanded into a huge business worth $3 billion, a triumph even Disney recognizes.

During the subsequent months, as JJ and his relatives started featuring in additional videos, ABCkidTV's monthly viewership surged. By December of the subsequent year, the channel, which was then renamed CoComelon, a blend of the terms “coconut” and “watermelon”, reached a cumulative total of 2 billion views on YouTube.

By 2020, JJ possessed two teeth and had arrived at Netflix. Currently, he welcomes his youthful audience on his program, CoComelon Lane, with a song, “It’s a great day on CoComelon Lane, and it’s so nice to meet ya.” It's not that there are ever unpleasant days in JJ’s universe, where the sky consistently displays a flawless cheerful blue, all the CG contours are smooth and rounded, the parents remain endlessly patient, and difficulties are readily resolved within a concise seven minutes.

It won't come as a shock to anyone raising a child younger than seven that CoComelon programs accounted for over 45 billion minutes of watch time on Netflix during 2024, surpassing all other children's franchises on the platform, including Gabby’s Dollhouse. Furthermore, JJ enjoys a following in over 190 nations, with viewers tuning in across numerous languages on 100 distinct streaming platforms. On YouTube, content featuring JJ, his companions Cody and Nina, and their guardians is available on more than twelve channels, boasting a collective 400 million subscribers and garnering an average of 4 billion views each month. 

Patrick Reese, a youthful-looking executive who's been involved with CoComelon for nearly ten years, states that JJ's popularity stems from his capacity to reflect every young child who encounters him: “It’s either ‘I’m JJ’ or ‘JJ is my best friend.’”

JJ's wide smile is featured on adhesive bandages, meal containers, sleepwear, and fruit-flavored treats. You'll find it on the front of publications concerning bathing, sleeping, and welcoming a new brother or sister. On his audio program, JJ narrates classic stories, and his version of “Wheels on the Bus” has achieved platinum status. His theatrical global journey this year included forty-five venues across the United States.

JJ isn't the initial online sensation to question the dominance of established giants; consider MrBeast or Jake Paul. However, as a parent of two young kids, I can confirm that a distinct trend is emerging.

JJ isn’t just famous; he’s a modern-day Mickey Mouse.

Whether across eras, locations, or dimensions, meaning here in Los Angeles on a recent weekday morning, I felt a bit like I was entering the tangible manifestation of CoComelon Lane as I traversed the cobblestone pathway of the adjacent Grove shopping complex en route to the offices of Moonbug Entertainment, the proprietor of CoComelon. The heavens were a brilliant blue, and JJ offered a formal, cardboard figure's wave upon my arrival in the reception area. I almost anticipated CEO René Rechtman greeting me with the tune “About to Do Something New,” as he guided me through the premises.

Rechtman—tall, bald, Danish, 55 years old—is visiting for a brief period of engagements that feature a very early preview of the inaugural CoComelon film, scheduled for release in cinemas in February 2027. CoComelon: The Movie signifies JJ’s debut on the silver screen, a significant achievement not only for a single animated child but for a whole YouTube environment established on independent, creator-driven brands. The motion picture, produced in collaboration with DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures, is “a moment—and a big moment,” states Rechtman as he takes a seat on a sofa in Moonbug’s relaxation area. 

He looks out the window, which offers a view of Television City, a studio lot that was once vibrant and now stands as a large, vacant monument to how the whole entertainment sector has been completely upended while pursuing mergers and expense reductions, driven by the growth of streaming and the decrease in cinema attendance. “In London, it’s better,” Rechtman remarks, referencing the location from which he directs the 450-member Moonbug team at the firm's main offices in Camden. “We’re up high and look down on Viacom. I like that, digital looking down on analog.” 

When Rechtman, a former Disney executive, launched Moonbug in 2018, many in Hollywood dismissed his strategy of acquiring popular YouTube channels to enhance their brand recognition. Their conviction was that a significant, cherished franchise necessitated beginning with compelling characters and narratives. However, Rechtman perceived something others overlooked: that audiences, particularly the youngest demographic, were dedicating extensive time to YouTube, irrespective of a substantial storyline. Rechtman was confident that with such a viewership, he could ultimately cultivate brand loyalty. 

“My dream has always been to create a huge entertainment company for the next generation,” he says. “How do we build a brand that has a really big place in people’s hearts?” 

For the last seven years, Rechtman has been entirely dedicated to that objective, and he's accomplished at least a portion of it: In 2021, he divested Moonbug to a consortium of media investors supported by Blackstone for $3 billion. However, can CoComelon capture affections? CoComelon: The Movie represents Moonbug's opportunity to demonstrate that it can.

While a child in Copenhagen, Rechtman eagerly anticipated Saturdays. That's when the Danish Broadcasting Corp. Broadcast a half-hour collection of Disney tales, airing after the afternoon soccer games and preceding the evening news. Many years later, following a period leading AOL’s branded content department, Rechtman was presented with a chance to join the company founded by Mickey Mouse. This occurred when Disney purchased a YouTube venture where he had been an investor and the executive in charge of global operations. As his four-year tenure with the company neared its conclusion, he identified a trend: Approximately 25% of the content viewed on YouTube consisted of children's programming, and “no big studios owned any of it.”

Drawing from a key takeaway from his time at Disney—the importance of owning intellectual property—Rechtman devised a strategy for a venture that would purchase prominent children's programming channels on YouTube and significantly boost their performance indicators. He shared this concept with several leaders, such as the then-chairman of Walt Disney International, Andy Bird, he states, but eventually, Rechtman departed Disney and joined forces with Canadian media figure John Robson to establish Moonbug. 

Back then, and often still today, YouTube channels were mom-and-pop shops with maybe only a handful of employees. Rechtman would call up the channel’s founders, snag an invite to their home, and pitch them on selling to Moonbug. “Remember, a lot of these creators, these IP owners, don’t need to sell,” Rechtman says. “They’re very profitable. They have a great life. They [live out] their creative dreams without anyone telling them what to do. But it’s always interesting when somebody comes and says, ‘I Iove what you do, but I have a much bigger vision and dream.’”

COURTESY OF MOONBUG ENTERTAINMENT

Moonbug's initial purchase was Little Baby Bum, a YouTube channel featuring animated nursery rhymes boasting approximately 16 million subscribers, which was managed by a couple operating near London. Moonbug implemented certain YouTube optimal strategies, such as establishing a consistent posting timetable and refining video titles and preview images, leading to a doubling of Little Baby Bum's viewership on YouTube within roughly nine months. 

Moonbug acquired Morphle TV, an additional network operating in the nursery rhyme sector, which was established by Dutch animator Arthur van Merwijk. With every acquisition, Moonbug would enhance the production workflow, incorporate more intricate narratives and superior animation—leading to an increase in its YouTube viewership. 

All of this primed Moonbug to go after CoComelon, which had become a kids programming juggernaut with 3.5 billion YouTube views per month—more than almost any other channel. CoComelon had posted its first video all the way back in 2006 before Google acquired YouTube, making it one of the oldest operating channels on the platform today. And yet for years, no one could figure out who ran the channel. CoComelon’s cocreator finally revealed himself, via an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, in February 2020, to be a 55-year-old Korean-American commercial director named Jay Jeon, who said he started the channel with his wife, a children’s book author, to entertain their two sons in California. Jeon declined to disclose his wife’s name. “Nobody knows me,” he told the magazine. “I really like that.”

“The ethos at that time was super simple, which was just to make kids happy and smart,” says Reese, the Moonbug executive. “So much of what Jay put into those stories and into the content is still very much the underpinning of CoComelon today.” Rechtman, a father of three, was struck by the way the couple’s creation showed the nuances of family life: “It was very well thought through, these soft moments that we all miss as parents because we are doing other stuff—whether it’s the first time the kid brushes his teeth himself, or eats a carrot, or shows empathy to a friend, or dares to go on a bicycle with two wheels.”

Rechtman's strategy for CoComelon, however, was far from gentle. In July 2020, Moonbug revealed it had secured $120 million from a consortium of backers, such as Goldman Sachs and the Raine Group, to finance the purchases of CoComelon and Blippi. Blippi is another widely-liked children's channel that showcases live-action content with the performer and educator Stevin John. The firm promptly began translating CoComelon into numerous languages, developing a range of products, and authorizing the distribution of its videos on additional streaming services. “To optimize CoComelon took less than six months,” Rechtman stated.

With CoComelon and Blippi under one roof, Moonbug became the largest network of kids programming on YouTube, ahead of Teletubbies owner WildBrain and Pinkfong, the studio behind “Baby Shark Dance,” the most-watched YouTube video of all time. 

The subsequent year, with Moonbug approaching a reported $100 million in yearly earnings, Rechtman considered an initial public offering. However, he ultimately consented to the acquisition of the firm by Candle Media, a company backed by Blackstone that was consolidating entertainment ventures, such as Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine. Kevin Mayer, who previously served as a Disney executive and is now co-CEO of Candle Media, states that Moonbug is “the largest asset that we have.”

He compares Moonbug’s approach to when he helped Disney buy Marvel and Star Wars, he tells me. “That’s our model. We are a natural buyer of these young kids’ properties because we can monetize them better.” 

Kids were already viewing a substantial amount of CoComelon, but once the pandemic began, its audience numbers soared. During 2021, its inaugural full year on Netflix, CoComelon surpassed all other shows on the service—whether originals or acquired content—in total minutes watched, with the exception of Criminal Minds, as reported by Nielsen. In 2023, Netflix and Moonbug introduced CoComelon Lane, which broadened JJ’s narrative to feature tales focusing on his educational institution, Melon Patch Academy, his companions, and his instructor, Ms. Appleberry.

Moonbug executives can be a little defensive when Netflix comes up in conversation. “CoComelon was already really big…before Netflix came a-calling,” says Courtney Holt, managing director for the Americas. But there’s no denying that Netflix added some legitimacy, especially with parents: For CoComelon to sit in a curated, premium entertainment environment alongside Emmywinning shows “hugely improved the perception of the IP,” says Rechtman. 

As visibility grew, so did a wave of disapproval: the tunes were so infectious they put youngsters into a trance-like condition; the rapid scene changes were so swift they were conditioning those delicate, impressionable minds to avoid concentrating on anything for extended periods; and the video collections (which can exceed 90 minutes) were prompting youngsters to devote considerable time before a display. A 2022 piece in the New York Times detailed how Moonbug would evaluate its productions using a device known as a Distractatron. Each instance a child shifted their gaze from The CoComelon footage to the Distractatron—a compact television showing ordinary, everyday scenarios on repeat—the audience analysis group would record it. Put differently, Moonbug was continuously designing its videos to be captivating for a young child's intellect. The volume of objections intensified. 

“We get a lot of shit about screen time,” Rechtman tells me unprompted in our interview, pointing out that the company hasn’t used the Distractatron for “many years.” (A CoComelon spokesperson follows up to tell me that the Distractatron was used as part of a “small, one-time research study.”) Besides, Rechtman points out, it’s far from the only kids brand on YouTube. “Maybe I’m too European. I didn’t feel it was my responsibility to explain to the world that we work with UCLA,” he says, noting that each video is designed to fit children’s developmental needs. 

COURTESY OF MOONBUG ENTERTAINMENT

Ultimately, Rechtman states, the choice rests with parents regarding the duration their young children should spend watching television or using a tablet. “I don’t think kids should watch three hours of screens; they should watch 20 minutes or half an hour,” he remarks. However, he further explains, “the platforms are asking for it.”

Details about CoComelon: The Movie, announced in May, are a closely guarded secret, but a few tidbits emerged in my conversations with Moonbug executives: Disney and DreamWorks Animation alum Kat Good, whose credits include work on Tarzan, Mulan, and Kung Fu Panda, is directing. As in all things CoComelon, music will play a critical role, but for the film, the songs are getting a pop-inspired upgrade courtesy of executive music producer Justin Tranter, a Grammy nominee who has worked with Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande. “My goal for these new CoComelon songs is to make them joyful and catchy enough that kids are obsessed, but cool and rich enough that parents are happy to hear them on a loop,” Tranter said in a statement. 

Moonbug's executives seem confident about the CoComelon movie, suggesting they anticipate success. Dan Chuba, an experienced producer with credits including The Mitchells vs. The Machines, The Garfield Movie, and the Angry Birds movies, is providing joint funding for CoComelon: The Movie through his company, Flywheel Media. He characterized the film as “magical,”, stating to me, “Our goal now is to not screw up what we’ve done.”

When the film premieres in 2027, CoComelon, the YouTube enterprise, will have been operating for nearly two decades. Such longevity is rare for brands, presenting a chance to re-evaluate certain aspects of its operations.

Moonbug is planning a big move for CoComelon’s subscription video business—one that takes the story full circle, in a way, for Rechtman. The CoComelon compilation videos that have been streaming on Netflix will be leaving for a new home: Disney+. The House of the Mouse swooped in with a deal too good to pass up. “They really wanted it,” says Rechtman. And while he says Netflix has been “a phenomenal home” for CoComelon, the Disney brand carries weight in children’s programming that Rechtman has experienced firsthand. “It’s great for the evolution of the brand.”

The conclusion of the Netflix agreement occurs as CoComelon compilations witnessed a 60% drop in viewership on the streaming service from the start of 2023 through the end of 2024. Children are still viewing a substantial amount of CoComelon—including over 273 million hours across its programs on Netflix during the initial half of 2025—however, it isn't achieving the same popularity it did during the pandemic. On YouTube, CoComelon persists in expanding and surpassing all other children's franchises, yet there could ultimately be a ceiling on its potential size—at least within the U.S. Currently, CoComelon is exploring agreements to adapt its narratives for international audiences globally. The initial move involves a new CoComelon series being developed in collaboration with Japan’s Sanrio, which will showcase JJ and Hello Kitty. 

“We have so much audience, it’s ridiculous,” Rechtman says. “But if we can just convert some of that audience to super-audience…then we know that the next kid will watch, and the next kid.” After all, JJ may never grow up, but his fans eventually will.

This article appears in the December 2025/January 2026 issue of Coins2Day with the headline “The future of Hollywood started as a YouTube show for toddlers.”