Why Did 'The Happytime Murders' Bomb?
by EG
We thought the failure of the adult-oriented The Muppets series a couple of years ago made it clear that there was not a big demand among mature audiences for Jim Henson-style puppetry. That would seem to explain the failure of The Happytime Murders, a profane comedy from Henson's son, in which puppets have sex and tell dirty jokes, but one reviewer thinks it's more complex than that. Read on to see if you agree.
Via Deadline.
We’ve frequently written about the wane of raunchy comedies recently at the box office, often blaming streaming for encroaching on the genre’s theatrical territory and stealing away such talent as Adam Sandler.
STX Entertainment’s bawdy R-rated Melissa McCarthy-puppet comedy, The Happytime Murders, which was willed into existence over the last ten years, looked to be a game changer on paper as well as in that hysterical red band trailer. But the Brian Henson-directed title was dead and wrapped in plastic with a $10M opening, according to STX’s numbers this morning. Some rivals see it much lower at $9.6M-$9.7M after an STX-reported Saturday that was down 15% from Friday’s $3.95M for $3.3M. All in, Happytime Murders reps McCarthy’s lowest wide opening ever for one of her solo films – not counting St. Vincent, which was a platform release. Happytime Murders’ opening is even lower than McCarthy’s May PG-13 title Life of the Party ($17.9M), which we thought was rock bottom.
But rather than blame the raunchy comedy B.O. recession, or Warner Bros. one-two power August punch of Crazy Rich Asians and The Meg, which respectively made $25M and $13M this weekend, there appeared to be a missed opportunity here with The Happytime Murders by both STX and McCarthy. Out of all the comedies this year, this one looked fresh, and quite different for McCarthy. But the movie was never propped up as a summer comedy event by STX for reasons we’ll explain soon.
Personally, I thought Happytime was very funny. But with comedy being subjective, I’m sure for others the project stands as a fine line between brilliance and career shark-jumping. The development of Happytime Murders at the Jim Henson Co. was first announced in 2008, followed by Lionsgate fast-tracking the project in 2011. Cameron Diaz and Katherine Heigl once circled the project. Then Universal’s foul-mouthed teddy bear comedy Ted happened in 2012, earning $218.8M stateside, and over a half- billion worldwide. The success of Ted revived hope for Happytime, and when the project went into turnaround, STX scooped up the rights in July 2015. Jamie Foxx, at one point, was in talks to play opposite former puppet-cop-turned-P.I. Phil Philips (Bill Barretta) before McCarthy took over.
Get the rest of the story at Deadline.
Do you think The Happytime Murders was funny? Let us know why or why not in the comments below.