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David Mumpower: For a movie with a $15 million budget, Bad Grandpa is undeniably a tremendous success story. Johnny Knoxville has become the world’s most famous self-harmer and he does it with an inimitable style that works. Even those of us who aren’t passionate supporters of Jackass can find something hilarious in the advertising for Bad Grandpa. For me, it’s the real life spin on the final dance sequence from Little Miss Sunshine.

I understand that Bad Grandpa opened a great deal lower than Jackass 3D, but we should look at that title as the outlier. The latest Jackass franchise release is the second best opening of the four, no small feat for a flick debuting ten years after the original. I had presumed that the franchise would start to fade as its target audience grew older. In reality, Jackass can lay a claim to be the modern version of The Three Stooges. The scary thought is what the next iteration of the Jackass/Three Stooges style of humor will be.

Kim Hollis: Considering that this was a departure from the traditional Jackass offerings and instead veered into a story about a tertiary character created within that universe, I think this result is exceptional. The thing about a movie with “Jackass Presents” at the front is that it’s somewhat unclear whether this is an actual Jackass movie or if it is instead something different. People were still able to discern that Johnny Knoxville is selling what they want to buy, so Paramount did a magnificent job of circumnavigating that potential pitfall. What I think is smart about Knoxville and his crew’s approach is that they have never oversaturated the market, unlike spoof films and horror films that keep appearing in the same slot year after year. He’s spaced these movies out pretty gradually, and now he’s taken things in a different direction. I’m actually interested to see what he comes up with next, even though I’ve only ever watched one of the films (and was both amused and horrified by it).

Reagen Sulewski: One thing that this crew has been clever about that other similar comics could learn from (*coughcough*Sasha Baron-Cohen*cough**cough*), is to not saturate the market with their films or wear our their welcome by antagonizing their audience. They average about three years between films, which is just long enough to give everyone a break without being forgotten. In the case of Bad Grandpa, they even make sure to keep them on the right side of the joke. Of course, with how cheap these films are to make, it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to turn a profit, but there's no reason that they have to turn this big of one. It's a pretty effective example of keeping your audience wanting more.

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