A Solid Debut for ‘The Naked Gun'
That's the message Paramount Pictures was selling ahead of this weekend's opening of 'The Naked Gun,' a sequel to the 1980-90s franchise and one of the few comedy films getting a theatrical release this year.
Saved for now … perhaps?
The film generated neither blockbuster nor belly-flop results over the weekend, with an estimated $17 million in box office receipts. But the film has received strong reviews — a 90 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- grade on CinemaScore, an exit polling system. And executives at Paramount Pictures think those reviews combined with positive word of mouth will easily help the studio recoup its investment in the film. The comedy, from director Akiva Schaffer, cost $42 million to make with tens of millions more spent to market it.
Theatrical comedy is the genre that has been most decimated by the streaming era, and the one that comedians and comedy writers desperately want to return to the big screen. These films began falling off in 2010, according to David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. Today, the genre generates less than half the box office revenue it once did.
How you define a comedy determines how many comedies have been released this year. To some, 'The Naked Gun,' starring Liam Neeson as the bumbling Los Angeles police officer Frank Drebin Jr., is only the second straight-up comedy to hit theaters this calendar year. (Sony Pictures' 'One of Them Days,' released in January, is the other.) Another comedy, the PG-rated 'Freakier Friday' from Disney, will come out next weekend.
'For those of you who don't remember the original 'Naked Gun,' there used to be these movies called comedies,' one of the film's producers, the 'Family Guy' creator Seth MacFarlane, said at a screening in Los Angeles. 'It's been so long since one came out that Paramount asked me to explain to you that it is supposed to be funny, just so you're not confused.'
Some comedies on streaming services have found huge audiences. 'Happy Gilmore 2,' a sequel to a 1996 film, became Adam Sandler's most-watched film on Netflix in recent weeks. The streaming company reported that 47 million people tuned in during its first weekend on the service.
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