Production notes

On July 31, 2013, Paramount Animation announced that they were developing a new live-action/animated franchise, with an entry film titled Monster Trucks, and Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger set to write the film's script. The pitch was created by Paramount's president Adam Goodman alongside his four-year-old son. Chris Wedge was set to direct the film, with Mary Parent producing and an initial release date set for May 29, 2015. Production took place in Vancouver Film Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia. On February 19, 2014, Jane Levy and Lucas Till joined the cast of the film. On March 24, Amy Ryan was cast in a role, and later that week, Holt McCallany joined the cast as a villain. On April 1, Frank Whaley and Danny Glover joined the cast of the film. Later that month, Thomas Lennon joined as well, and on April 14, Barry Pepper joined the cast. On April 24, Tucker Albrizzi, who starred in Nickelodeon's TV show Big Time Rush, joined the cast, with Rob Lowe added five days later. In December 2013, it was announced that the film's production would begin in early April 2014 in Vancouver, with filming wrapping up in mid-July, and the studio Vancouver Film Studios was booked for the production. Principal photography began on April 4, 2014, in Kamloops. Filming was spotted on May 13, 2014, in downtown Chilliwack.

Monster Trucks grossed $33.4 million in the United States and Canada and $31.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $64.5 million. In North America, Monster Trucks was released alongside the openings of The Bye Bye Man and Sleepless, as well as the wide releases of Silence, Patriots Day and Live by Night, and was expected to gross $8–10 million from 3,119 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up making $11 million ($14.2 million over the four-day MLK weekend), finishing 7th at the box office. Due to its $125 million budget, as well as additional amounts spent on promotion, the film was considered by analysts to be a box-office bomb. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film lost Paramount $123.1 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 32% based on 98 reviews and an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite flashes of inspiration, the singularly high-concept Monster Trucks shows that it takes more than monsters and trucks to create a compelling feature film." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 41 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Some contemporary reviews were more complimentary, however. Kristy Puchko cited it as a "treasure that feels like a heady relic from the '90s" in IndieWire's 2017 critic's survey of the Craziest Hollywood Movies of the 21st Century, while SG Egan called it a "live-action cartoon that recalls the goofy, good-hearted Amblin family films of yore" in AM New York Metro's Best Films of 2017 list. Further, audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. By 2021, the film's reputation had improved slightly, with Lisa Laman of Looper observing that a cult following had developed for the film, while Chris Evangelista penned an essay for The Guardian arguing for the film's merits.