The Naked Gun's Box Office Opening Suggests Its Mission To Save Comedy Is Far From Over

Theatrical comedy is perhaps the genre that has struggled the most at the box office as the film industry has sought to recover in the aftermath of the lockdown era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite that, Paramount Pictures decided to give it the ol' college try with a reboot of "The Naked Gun," which hit theaters this past weekend. Mercifully, the movie got off to a decent start, but it's also still got a long way to go before we can declare it an out-and-out success.

Directed by Akiva Schaffer, "The Naked Gun" opened to $17 million domestically, coming in at number three on the charts. Though it dropped rather hard, Marvel's "The Fantastic First: First Steps" stayed at number one with $40 million, with Universal's animated sequel "The Bad Guys 2" landing in the number two spot with $22.2 million. This to say, it was a crowded weekend. Be that as it may, Paramount's revival of its one-popular comedy franchise didn't get buried. To that end, the movie also pulled in $11.5 million overseas for a $28.5 million global start.

Against a budget said to be in the $40 million range, that's good enough for now. "The Naked Gun" came in just a touch below pre-release expectations, but tracking has become increasingly unreliable in recent years, with the theatrical marketplace having become more volatile and unpredictable. More importantly, theatrical rom-coms such as "Anyone But You" ($220 million), Ticket to Paradise" ($168 million) and "The Lost City" ($192 million) have performed well since 2020. Straight-up comedy, however? That's a different story.

"Strays" ($36 million worldwide) and "Joy Ride" ($15 million worldwide) are a couple of recent examples of comedies that floundered in theaters (even with great reviews, in the latter's case). That being the case, pegging what "The Naked Gun" might be able to do was always going to be tricky. Also, not for nothing, but "Happy Gilmore 2" has become a monster hit on Netflix, which provided some real competition for eyeballs in the comedy space.

All things considered, this is an encouraging start for the "Naked Gun" revival. The film stars Liam Neeson ("Taken") as Frank Drebin Jr., who follows in his father's footsteps (Leslie Nielsen's Frank Drebin) by heading up the Police Squad. Pamela Anderson ("The Last Showgirl") and Paul Walter Hauser ("Cruella") also star.

Schaffer's reboot/legacy sequel, which was produced by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, has been met with very good reviews. It currently holds a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, boasting a solid A- CinemaScore from audiences. That suggests word of mouth could be strong. In /Film's 9 out of 10 review of "The Naked Gun," Ethan Anderton even called it "the funniest movie of the year."

That's good because Paramount needs the movie to hang around for several weeks in order to justify the budget. Right now, it's playing not unlike 2023's "No Hard Feelings" starring Jennifer Lawrence, which made $87 million worldwide following a $15 million opening. The fact that "Naked Gun" opened just slightly above that is encouraging. If it can ride a similar trajectory and get somewhere close to $100 million globally when all's said and done, the studio can probably call this a win.

This upcoming weekend sees Warner Bros.' horror movie "Weapons" and Disney's sequel "Freakier Friday" arrive at the box office. Beyond that though, the August release calendar is relatively devoid of big movies, with "The Conjuring: Last Rites" serving as the next true tentpole when it arrives in early September. That could help give this spoof comedy the runway it needs to help save theatrical comedy as we know it. It's too early to call and we'll know a lot more come next Monday. For now, though, so far, so good.

"The Naked Gun" is currently playing in theaters.