| Director | Shawn Levy |
|---|---|
| Budget | $40 million |
| Box office | $190.5 million |
Tom Baker is a football coach at a small rural college in the fictional town of Midland, Illinois, where he raised twelve children. His wife, Kate, has written her story in a book and hopes to send it to her friend for publication. One day, Tom unexpectedly receives an offer from his old friend and football teammate Shake McGuire to coach at his alma mater in his hometown of Evanston, Illinois. Tom accepts the offer, and demands all the children vote on moving. Despite losing the vote, Tom has the entire family return to Evanston for a better home and space. The atmosphere at the Bakers' new house is tense and the situation at school is even worse.
When her book is ready to pick up for publication, Kate is required to do a national book tour to promote it. Tom thinks that he can handle everything in the family's household while Kate is away, so he hires the family's oldest child, Nora, and her self-absorbed boyfriend, Hank, to manage the children. When Nora and Hank arrive, the younger children make Hank the target of their prank by soaking his underwear in raw meat and siccing the Bakers' pet dog Gunner on him to bite his buttocks, prompting him to refuse to assist in babysitting. As a result, Nora drives off with Hank, while Tom lectures them for their prank.
After Kate departs for her book tour, Tom realizes that he cannot handle the children on his own after a chaotic night. He tries to hire a housekeeper, but nobody is willing to work with a family as large as the Bakers. Tom decides to bring the football players from work into his house for game practicing in the living room (to prepare for the Saturday night football game) while the children perform chores and their household games. However, they start causing trouble at school and Charlie, the Bakers' oldest son, is removed from the football team. Kate overhears from the children about the chaos and cancels the remainder of her book tour to take charge of the situation. Kate's publisher decides to create an additional promotion for her book by inviting Oprah Winfrey to tape a segment about the Bakers in their home instead.
Despite much coaching from Kate, the Bakers are not able to demonstrate the loving, strongly bonded family that Kate described in her book. When Mark, one of the younger children, becomes upset that his pet frog has died, a heated fight erupts moments before the segment starts, leading the cameramen to call Winfrey to cancel the segment. Mark runs away from home, prompting the Bakers to find him, with Nora dumping Hank when he refuses to help. Tom indulges a hunch that Mark is trying to run back to the Bakers' old home, and eventually finds Mark on an Amtrak train departing from Chicago to Midland.
Reuniting with the rest of their family, the Bakers begin to address their issues with each other, and find a happy medium. Kate's book is published and is successful in sales. Tom ultimately resigns from his position at his alma mater and finds another job, allowing him to spend more time with his family.