The Naked Gun's Director Is A Comedy Legend With A Tragic Box Office Track Record

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

"There was a couple years, though, where it was not a big punchline, but where if it came up, you had to disavow it." Those are the words of director Akiva Schaffer, one third of the comedy group The Lonely Island, talking about their 2007 comedy "Hot Rod" on "The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast" in 2024. "Even on talk shows, you'd have to, like, really make sure you made fun of it before they did."

Time has been kind to "Hot Rod," with the film achieving cult status over the years. In its day though, the comedy was a flat out flop. Despite Schaffer's success alongside his partners Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone on "Saturday Night Live," this pattern of flop-turned-cult-classic would unfortunately follow Schaffer around for much of his career up to this point.

Now, Schaffer is in the director's chair for "The Naked Gun" reboot, which hopes to help revive theatrical comedy. Once again, he has delivered on the promise of making a funny crowd-pleaser. The problem in the past though is that the crowds were small, at least at first.

In this week's Tales from the Box Office, we're going to look back at Schaffer's career as a director in honor of the release of "The Naked Gun," focusing on "Hot Rod" and how that initiated something of a pattern that would emerge. We'll go over how it came to be, what happened when it hit theaters, what happened in the aftermath of its release, and what lessons we can learn from it all these years later. Let's dig in, shall we?

The film centers on amateur stuntman Rod Kimble (Samberg) who is trying to show his stepfather Frank (Ian McShane) that he can be a man by beating him in a fight in the hopes of one day earning his respect. But when Frank falls ill and needs a heart transplant, Rod and his crew hatch a plan to save his stepfather's life. They set up a big stunt that will see Rod jump 15 buses to raise the money for Frank's heart operation. Then? Kick. His. Ass.

Pam Brady ("Team America: World Police") penned the screenplay, working with Paramount Pictures and "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels. "Hot Rod" was originally written with Will Ferrell in mind but sat for years. After the success of "Lazy Sunday" and some of the other Lonely Island digital shorts, things shifted. Samberg would take on the leading role with Taccone playing his brother and videographer, Kevin. Schaffer, meanwhile, would find himself in the director's chair. Schaffer speaking to /Film in a July 2007 interview, had this to say about it:

"After Lazy Sunday they were like 'The three of you guys, why don't you read it.' And of course it was just so silly and weird that we were like, 'You're gonna let us make a movie? Of course!'" 

So, it was off to the races. The trio had to "tweak" the script to put themselves in it, as the original version was very evidently a Ferrell vehicle. They made it a Lonely Island vehicle, injecting the group's signature weirdness into it. 

"The studio knew that if they put someone in an Evel Knievel costume, whether it's Will Ferrell or Dane Cook or Andy Samberg, then they've got a poster," Schaffer said in a 2007 interview with New York Magazine. "They wanted a PG-13 movie, like a Dodgeball. I think within those confines, we did pretty well." The rest of the cast shaped up nicely, with Bill Hader ("SNL"), Danny McBride ("The Foot Fist Way"), Isla Fisher ("Wedding Crashers"), and the legedary Sissy Spacek ("Carrie") also on board. 

At that time, PG-13 comedies were doing rather well, with "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" serving as a prime example. Other examples include "Anchorman," "Blades of Glory," and "Click." Samberg, speaking to Vanity Fair in 2017, recalled that they wanted to craft something made distinctly for younger viewers.

"We oftentimes would say it would be so cool if we could make something that felt for kids and teenagers the way movies like Billy Madison and Wet Hot American Summer felt for us. That was definitely our goal."

The movie was test screened a great deal, with various gags debated a great deal along the way. Even though this was ultimately intended as a mainstream studio comedy with a very healthy $25 million budget, the trio didn't skimp on the weird. From the infamous "cool beans" scene to Samberg's Rod falling down the world's largest hill for a dizzying amount of time, and even that bizarre "Whoopee Boys" poster, Schaffer and Co. went for it. It just might have been too much for mainstream audiences to handle in 2007.

Paramount had to decide in marketing the film whether to lean into its irreverent nature, or try to make it seem like a wacky PG-13 comedy from The Lonely Island guys. They more or less went for the latter option. The bigger issue was that the comedy faced a great deal of late summer competition, all while earning largely lousy reviews. Though Roger Ebert did give it three stars. Unfortunately, those three stars did little to help its chances on opening weekend.

"Hot Rod" hit theaters on August 3, 2007, opening directly against "The Bourne Ultimatum" ($69.2 million). While it could have/should have worked as counterprogramming, "The Simpsons Movie" was also in its second weekend of release, en route to an eventual $536 million globally. It was a perfect storm for disaster. The film opened to a lousy $5.3 million domestically, placing at number nine on the charts, scarcely above Lionsgate's "Bratz" ($4.2 million).

With other crowd pleasers such as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," and "Transformers," still doing business, there was no room for this wacky, poorly reviewed comedy. By the time "Rush Hour 3" and "Stardust" arrived the following weekend, the writing was on the wall. It plummeted out of the top ten and that was that.

Schaffer's feature directorial debut finished its run with just $13.9 million domestically to go with a horrible $415,000 overseas for a grand total of $14.3 million globally. It was a major misfire by all accounts.

Fortunately, the failure of "Hot Rod" didn't end Schaffer's career. Or anyone in The Lonely Island for that matter. He continued to direct a series of very successful shorts, including "I'm on a Boat" and "Jack Sparrow." Eventually, he'd get another shot at a feature film, this time with a stacked cast of established A-listers, with 2012's "The Watch."

Once again though, the fates conspired against Schaffer. Originally marketed as "Neighborhood Watch" in early 2012, the Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, and Vince Vaughn comedy found itself in the midst of a real-life tragedy. Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in 2012 by a neighborhood watch captain in Florida. Given the subject matter of the movie, it put Fox in a difficult position. All of the marketing was pulled and, in May, the began marketing simply as "The Watch" mere weeks ahead of its release in July. It floundered at the box office with $68 million against a $68 million budget.

Schaffer would reunite with his Lonely Island companions for another directorial effort in 2016, this time a musical suiting their style of comedy in the form of "Popstar: Never Stop Stopping." Co-directing alongside Taccone with Samberg starring in the lead, it was met with very favorable reviews. All the same, "Popstar" failed to crack $10 million at the box office against a $20 million budget. For several years, Schaffer would instead turn his attention to TV, directing episodes of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "I Think You Should Leave." 

Movies frequently just arrive at the wrong time. "The Big Lebowski" was a bomb that became an all-time comedy classic. It happens very frequently, particularly with comedy and horror. Mercifully for Schaffer and The Lonely Island gang, time eventually caught up to "Hot Rod."

"The movies I've always liked, comedy-wise — 'Billy Madison,' 'The Jerk' — always got terrible reviews. When our reviews came in, it was like, 'Oh, we're right on track,'" Samberg said to Paper Magazine in September 2007. In that same piece, Michaels expressed his feeling that "Hot Rod" would find its audience.

"I've lived through everything from Wayne's World with Mike and Dana to Tommy Boy with Chris Farley, all the things I did with Ferrell, and even Three Amigos. Critics just don't like new comedians, and they certainly don't like them if they come from SNL or television. Later on, they revise their opinions and say that so-and-so's later films aren't as good as the first ones."

Indeed, many of the "Saturday Night Live" movies weren't hits in their day but became beloved later. Thanks to DVD and, more importantly, a healthy run on Comedy Central for several years and, most importantly, an eventual Netflix streaming release, "Hot Rod" grew its audience and is now a certified cult favorite. The same can be said of "Popstar." Hollywood Insider even ran a piece in 2020 saying, "The Lonely Island's 'Hot Rod' and 'Popstar' May Be The Most Underrated Comedies of All Time."

Looking back, it's downright remarkable how unlucky a guy as talented as Schaffer has been up to this point when it comes to his feature directorial efforts. That could arguably extend to The Lonely Island in general, as Jorma Taccone's "MacGruber" was yet another bomb that had to settle for cult status.

Yet, almost all of these movies, save for "The Watch," are now revered and will live on well beyond all of us. Even the greatest directors find themselves on the wrong end of a flop now and again, it's just insane that Schaffer has had it happen several times. Much of what transpired was not a reflection of him as a filmmaker. Fortunately, Schaffer's 2022 effort "Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers" went directly to Disney+ and was met with rave reviews. The box office wasn't a concern

As we wait to see what comes of "The Naked Gun," this is all a sobering reminder that the box office isn't the ultimate arbiter of a movie's fate. It's perhaps a testament to Hollywood sometimes getting it right that Schaffer hasn't really been put in director's jail over these disappointments. Yes, the box office is hugely important for the business but many, many movies have made more money than "Hot Rod" that nobody will ever remember. Schaffer and his pals made something that will endure. That matters.

If one had to sum the whole thing up in just two words? Cool beans.