The Steve Carell movieEvan Almightywas at one time the most expensive comedy movie ever, in addition to being an enormous box office bomb. The 2007 movie was a sequel to 2003’sBruce Almighty, which 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 a previously minorBruce Almightysupporting character named Evan Baxter who was played by Carell, who had since risen to fame playing Michael Scott on the sitcomThe Office.
In addition to being a television star, Carell would go on to be a major movie star.One of his best-known roles is voicing the reformed supervillain Gruin theDespicable Memovies, but he has held many major roles outside of the animated franchise in both comedies and dramas. This includes starring in projects such asCrazy, Stupid, Love,IF,Date Night,The Big Short,Welcome to Marwen, andFoxcatcher, the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
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The Movie’s Break-Even Point Was Impossibly High
The sequel to theJim Carrey and Steve Carell collaborationlikely seemed like a viable financial prospect because Carell had just scored major hits withThe Officeand 2005’sThe 40-Year-Old Virgin. This may have led to the movie getting its $175 million production budget, making it 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 turn a profit. This likelyplaced the break-even point forEvan Almightysomewhere north of $437.5 million.
Movies that grossed lower that same year did become hits…
However, the movie only earned $174.4 million at the box office, meaning thatit did not even make its budget back in the raw numbers. This gross might have made the movie a success if it had cost significantly less, as movies that grossed lower that same year did become hits includingSuperbad(which grossed $170.8 million against a roughly $20 million budget),Saw IV(which grossed $139.4 million against a $10 million budget), andAtonement(which grossed $131 million against a $30 million budget).
Evan Almightywas the 31st highest-grossing movie of 2007 worldwide, belowThe Bucket Listat No. 30.
Evan Almightywould eventually beusurped as the most expensive comedy movie of all time by the 2012 sequelMen in Black 3, which had a reported budget between $215 and $225 million. However, while the movie - which was led by Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin - has strong comedy elements, it lands much more squarely in the science fiction and action genres. It was also a much larger box office success, grossing $654.2 million worldwide, becoming the tenth highest-grossing movie of the year, and eventually spawning the 2019 spinoffMen in Black: International.
Why Steve Carell’s Evan Almighty Was So Poorly Received
The Movie Was Compared Negatively To Bruce Almighty
Evan Almightyproved to be a hit with neither critics nor audiences and currently holdsRotten Tomatoes scores of 24% and 52% with both groupsrespectively. Many reviews agree that the movie is a waste of Carell and the rest of its 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 toBruce Almighty, a movie that in and of itself only has a 48% score from critics on the review aggregator platform.
Evan Almighty Is One Of Many Awful Jim Carrey-Less Sequels
The Star Did Not Appear In Many Follow-Ups To His Early Movies
For quite some time before the advent ofDumb and Dumber ToandSonic the Hedgehog 2, the only sequels that were made toJim Carrey moviesdid not feature the star, with the exception of 1995’sAce Ventura: When Nature Calls, which was a smash hit at the box office, earning $212.4 million against its $30 million budget. In general,these sequels received dismal reviewsfrom critics. Below, see a breakdown of sequels or follow-ups to Jim Carrey movies that don’t feature the star and how they fared on Rotten Tomatoes:
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd(2003)
10%
Son of the Mask(2005)
6%
24%
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.(2009)
N/A
While the made-for-televisionAce Ventura: Pet Detective Jr.has not yet received an official Rotten Tomatoes score because it only has four reviews, three of them are negative, effectively giving it a 25% score. This makes it the best reviewed of the foursome behindEvan Almighty, thoughnone of them have charmed more than a quarter of critics. This may show that the Steve Carell comedy was doomed from the start, in spite of the fact that the star had a hit television comedy under his belt.
Evan Almighty
Evan Almighty is a 2007 comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac. 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 obligation.
