Will Ferrell returns this weekend with THE OTHER GUYS another comedy parody from the team that brought us ANCHORMAN, TALLEDEGA NIGHTS, and STEP BROTHERS. And while those three films have meant box office gold and packed in the laughs, the Will Ferrell magic has waned in recent years. With exception of STEP BROTHERS in 2008, Ferrell’s box office gravitas has begun to lessen.
Last year’s LAND OF THE LOST, for example, was an embarrassment costing Universal Pictures a bundle—the movie’s budget was reportedly a $100 million and its domestic box office only managed a meager (relatively speaking) $49 million. Reaching back to SEMI-PRO in 2008, I couldn’t find any budget figures, but the domestic box office reached a tepid $33 million. Certainly the studio New Line Cinema that delivered that air ball took quite a beating.
LOST and SEMI-PRO traded heavily on Will Ferrell’s clumsy and irreverent comedic personality often relying on crude language and adult situations. Sadly, the decision to take LOST in an adult direction with Ferrell even dropping the “f” bomb, left the movie without a real identifiable audience. Sadder still was the fact that LAND OF THE LOST was an adaptation of a cheesy but loved kids’ television show which if handled correctly could have attracted kids and their nostalgic parents. Sure the movie was meant as an irreverent parody and the source material wasn’t sacred, but such utter disregard for audience taste proved to be a bad business decision. And Will Ferrell’s career might never be the same.
But Ferrell’s failures haven’t been under the direction of Adam McKay who arguably has been the architect of Ferrell’s biggest successes. 2006’s TALLEDEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY made the most money of the duo’s prior collaborations raking in almost $150 million domestically. The narratively smaller STEP BROTHERS in 2008, also a McKay directed film, performed very well cracking the $100 million mark.
With THE OTHER GUYS McKay returns to familiar territory—the parody. The film spoofs the buddy cop genre featuring Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as two loser officers working in the shadow of two super cops, played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Of course, the idea of spoofing this genre is nothing new. Just last year director Kevin Smith tried this with the critically maligned and financially unsuccessful COP OUT.
From the trailer for THE OTHER GUYS it appears that McKay’s tendency to go for the completely ridiculous and unrealistic will be front and center. Pushing the joke well past the punch line and wringing out another layer of hilarity has been a successful formula for the McKay/Ferrell pairing. And McKay will once again rely on Ferrell’s clumsy comedic style to make it all work. Surrounding him with A-List talent will help, but ultimately because this is an Adam McKay comedy, Ferrell is the name on the top of the marquee here. The responsibility rests on Will Ferrell’s funny furrowed brow. And if THE OTHER GUYS fails to resonate with viewers we will understandably see a scaling back of large budgets for McKay/Ferrell comedies. And we might also see a declining career similar to that of Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen. Is a WILD HOGS in Will Ferrell’s future?
