MacGruber
MacGruber In Theaters
"MacGruber" - How many movies based on Saturday Night Live skits have been hits at the movie box office? By hits, we mean popular enough to spawn a sequel - and/or remain in theaters for more than 2 weeks, before popping up on video or DVD almost immediately thereafter! Um, "Wayne's World." (And maybe "The Blue's Brothers"). Those are the ones, really. the only skits from Saturday Night Live that warranted a big screen incarnation. But how many movies have appeared at movie theaters over the past 35 years based on SNL skits?
"The Blue Brothers" - 1980 - $57 million gross
"Wayne's World" - 1992 - $122 million gross
"Wayne's World 2" - 1993 - $48 million gross
"Coneheads" - 1993 - $21 million gross
"It's Pat" - 1994 - $61,000 gross, yes - sixty one thousand dollars
"Stuart Saves His Family" - 1995 - $900,000 gross
"A Night At The Roxbury" - 1998 - $30 million gross
"Blues Bros. 2000" - 1998 - $14 million gross
"Superstar" - 1999 - $30 million gross
"The Ladies Man" - 2000 - $11 million gross
"MacGruber" - 2010 - $10 million projected gross
It will have been 11 years when "MacGruber" - a simple minded spoof of the hit ABC 80s series MacGyver - hits the big screen since the last SNL skit appeared at a theater near you. Why the skit "MacGruber," arguably the worst ever featured on SNL, is now a big screen movie property, boggles anyone's mind.
Will we be eating crow (shit) or will "MacGruber" bomb spectacularly as the majority of SNL skits cum movies have?
Update: May 23, 2010:
As we predicted, the movie "MacGruber" was a bomb of Hiroshima proportions at the movie box office. Its first three days in theaters, opposite Shrek 4, "MacGruber" took in just $4 million. The movie will be hard pressed to surpass the $10 million mark, making it an even bigger movie box office bomb than the last SNL movie, Ladies Man, which in the year 2000, when ticket prices were much lower, grabbed $11 million during its entire theatrical run.
In fact, "MacGruber" becomes the lowest grossing SNL skit cum movie ever - for an SNL movie in wide release. It's Pat and Stuart Saves His Family each opened in only a handful of theaters and never played in wide theatrical release. MacGruber opened in 2500 theaters across the U.S. and Canada.
Only one American hero has earned the rank of Green Beret, Navy SEAL and Army Ranger. Just one operative has been awarded 16 purple hearts, 3 Congressional Medals of Honor and 7 presidential medals of bravery. And only one guy is man enough to still sport a mullet. Will Forte brings Saturday Night Live’s clueless soldier of fortune to the big screen in the action comedy "MacGruber." In the 10 years since his fiancée was killed, special op MacGruber has sworn off a life of fighting crime with his bare hands. But when he learns that his country needs him to find a nuclear warhead that’s been stolen by his sworn enemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), MacGruber figures he’s the only one tough enough for the job. Assembling an elite team of experts—Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) -MacGruber will navigate an army of assassins to hunt down Cunth and bring him to justice. His methods may be unorthodox. His crime scenes may get messy. But if you want the world saved right, you call in "MacGruber."
STARRING: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer
DIRECTOR: Jorma Taccone
STUDIO: Rogue Pictures
RATING: R (For language, nudity, drug use, violence, adult situations)
Wild About Movies Grade: C-
