Steve Carell starred in the most expensive comedy movie ever made and bombed at the box office

0
Steve Carell starred in the most expensive comedy movie ever made and bombed at the box office

The Steve Carell movie Evan Almighty was once the most expensive comedy movie ever, in addition to being a huge box office bomb. The 2007 movie was a sequel to 2003’s Bruce Almightywhich starred Jim Carrey in the title role. The follow-up, which featured an ensemble cast that included Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, John Michael Higgins, Jimmy Bennett and Wanda Sykes, focused on the story of an earlier minor. Bruce Almighty Supporting character named Evan Baxter who was played by Carell, who has since risen to fame playing Michael Scott on the sitcom The office.

In addition to being a TV star, Carell would be a major movie star. One of his best-known roles is portraying the reformed supervillain Gru in the Despicable me movies, but he has held many major roles outside of the animated franchise in both comedies and dramas. This includes starring in projects such as Crazy, stupid, love, If, date night, The big short, Welcome to MarwenAnd FoxcatcherThe latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Related

Evan Almighty has a whopping budget of around $175 million

The break-even point of the movie was impossibly high

The sequel to the collaboration of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell was likely to be a viable financial prospect as Carell had just scored major hits with The office and 2005s The 40-year-old virgin. This may have led to the movie receiving its production budget of $175 million, which was the most expensive comedy ever at the time. In general, because theaters keep half of ticket sales and publicity costs are not factored into budgets, a movie needs to earn roughly two-and-a-half times its budget to make a profit. This likely Set the break-even point for Evan Almighty Somewhere north of $437.5 million.

Movies that flopped in the same year became hits…

However, the movie only earned $174.4 million at the box office, meaning that It didn’t even make its budget back in the raw numbers. The greeting might have made the movie a success if it would have cost significantly less, because movies that grossed lower in the same year became hits including Superbad (which grossed $170.8 million against a roughly $20 million budget), Saw IV (which grossed $139.4 million against a $10 million budget), and atonement (which earned $131 million against a $30 million budget).

Evan Almighty would eventually be The 2012 sequel was the most expensive comedy movie of all time Men in Black 3which had a reported budget of between $215 and $225 million. However, while the movie – which was directed by Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Berlin – has strong comedy elements, it lands much more squarely in the science fiction and action genres. It was also a much bigger success at the box office, earning $654.2 million worldwide, becoming the tenth highest-grossing movie of the year, and eventually spawning the 2019 spinoff Men in Black: International.

Why Steve Carell’s Evan Almighty was so poorly received

The movie was negatively compared to Bruce Almighty


Steve Carell sits on the couch with Morgan Freeman in Evan Almighty

Evan Almighty Proved to be a hit with neither critics nor audiences and currently continues Rotten Tomatoes scores of 24% and 52% with both groups respectively. Many reviews agree that the movie is a waste of Carell and the rest of his ensemble cast, hiding unfunny jokes behind an excess of over-the-top special effects. While some praise its heartfelt storyline, most find it to be chaotic and messy, paling in comparison to Bruce AlmightyA movie that in and of itself only has a 48% score from critics on the review aggregator platform.

Evan Almighty is one of many terrible Jim Carrey-less sequels

The star did not appear in many follow-ups to his early movies


Steve Carell as Evan Almighty with animals

For quite some time before the advent of Dumb and dumb too And Sonic the Hedgehog 2The only sequels made to Jim Carrey movies did not star him, with the exception of 1995’s Ace Ventura: When Nature CallsWhich was a smash hit at the box office, earning $212.4 million against its $30 million budget. generally, The sequels received poor reviews of critics. Below, see a breakdown of sequels or follow-ups to Jim Carrey movies that didn’t feature the star and how they fared on Rotten Tomatoes:

Title

RT score

Dumb and Dumber: When Harry meets Lloyd (2003)

10%

Son of the mask (2005)

6%

Evan Almighty (2007)

24%

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr. (2009)

N/A

While the made-for-television Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr. Has not yet received an official Rotten Tomatoes score as it only has four reviews, three of which are negative, effectively giving it a 25% score. This makes it the best reviewed of the foursome behind Evan AlmightyAlthough None of them charmed more than a quarter of critics. This could show that the Steve Carell comedy was doomed from the start, despite the fact that the star has a hit TV comedy under his belt.

Evan Almighty is a 2007 comedy film directed by Tom Shadiak. The story follows Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), a newly elected congressman who is tasked by God (Morgan Freeman) to build an ark in preparation for a great flood, mirroring the biblical tale of Noah. As Evan grapples with his mission, he faces skepticism from his family and colleagues while trying to fulfill his divine duty.

Director

Tom Shadiak

Release date

June 22, 2007

runtime

96 minutes

Leave A Reply