Monday Morning Quarterback Part II

By BOP Staff

January 8, 2014

As far as you know, I was amazing!

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Kim Hollis: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues brought Ron Burgundy and his news team back to theaters. It made $10.6 million this weekend and has accumulated $108.7 million in 19 days of box office. What do you think of this result?

Brett Ballard-Beach: It's good, not great. One might argue it's a little less classy than it might have been, but that could be because expectations were being set unreasonably high by those who wondered aloud if this might be a Spy Who Shagged Me/Meet The Fockers perfect storm scenario of a sequel cannonballing past its predecessor. Having read about how legendary the "months in the unfolding, outside the box" ad campaign was for this, that may have made the film seem less important and less inspired by comparison. Still, the budget was $50 million, which shows that the studio remained prudent and didn't let costs escalate.

I saw the movie for my birthday on the 2nd. I understand that the following statement will probably be taken as hyperbole and I have to accept that but here goes: I have never, for any reason, in any situation, and certainly not for any movie, laughed as hard and as extensively over the course of a two hour period as I did during Anchorman 2. It was full contact emotion slamming: My eyes stung with tears. I needed my inhaler because I could not catch my breath. My head felt like I had sucked down a slurpee by the time the credits rolled. I don't know what movie a lot of critics saw (even the ones who gave it a qualified recommendation) but this was not only a funny film, but jaw-droppingly inspired in its willingness to go to the farthest reaches of absurdity for its laughs, and for its pathos (baby shark is all I will say). The fact that a film this crazy-ass weird has made over $100 million is testament to the Ron Burgundy brand. I give Ferrell and McKay huge respect for not simply making the same film, and not simply doing the same gags again (although the ones that are chosen to be repeated are worthy), but doing everything on both a more epic and, simultaneously somehow, a more human scale. This makes my top 10 for the year.




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Jason Barney: It had a solid opening. Comparisons to the performance of the original matter a little bit, but the main item in this equation is the sum total. Sure the opening could have been larger, sure it was a bit behind the original, but with the $50 million budget and the holidays, Paramount came out fine. They put out a good enough product at a smart time of the year, and will make money.

Max Braden: For a holiday comedy, it had a fine opening since these movies typically keep pulling in money well after New Year's Day. But considering how much effort was put into promoting this movie, I was expecting a much larger box office. It's doing fine over the long haul, but like Ron Burgundy, the marketing-to-opening performance was a lot of noise and not a lot to show for it.


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