Clown Act

The sequel to Dumb and Dumber surpasses Interstellar, Big Hero 6 and Beyond Lights at the U.S. and Canadian box office

L-R: Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels from the 1994 hit, Dumb and Dumber

Dumb and Dumber To, the sequel to the 1994 comedy that raised stupidity to an art form, led the U.S. and Canadian box office this weekend, taking in $38.1 million and outmuscling last week’s winner, Big Hero 6.
Hero, Walt Disney Co’s animated story of a boy and his robot settled for a close second with $36 million, according to estimates provided by tracking firm Rentrak. Director Christopher Nolan’s space adventure Interstellar released by Paramount Pictures, a unit by Viacom Film collected $29.2 million for third place.
Dumb and Dumber To stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as dimwitted friends searching for the long-lost daughter of one of the buddies. The original film, Dumb and Dumber was among 1994’s biggest hits with $127.2 million in domestic ticket sales. “We felt it was going to do over $30 million, but this is bordering on $40 million,” said Nikki Rocco, president for domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, the Comcast Corp unit that released the film.
“The timing was right for a comedy of this nature, one with broad appeal,” added Rocco noting the studio successfully broadened the film’s appeal to ethnic audiences with Hispanics making up 38 per cent of ticket buyers.
Big Hero 6 which features the voices of Damon Wayans, Jr., James Cromwell and Maya Rudolph has collected $111.7 million in the United States and Canada since it opened on Nov. 7 for a global total of $148 million.
Disney said the film helped propel the studio’s strong year at the box office. On Friday it surpassed $4 billion in global sales for the second time in its history. At fourth place was new release Beyond the Lights, the story of a pop star struggling with the pressures of fame who falls in love with a policeman. The film took fourth place with $6.5 million. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s third film follows well-received titles Love & Basketball and The Secret Life of Bees by her. Gone Girl, director David Fincher’s box office hit starring Ben Affleck as a man suspected in his wife’s disappearance, rounded out the top five with $4.6 million, bringing its domestic haul to $152.7 million.

For Dumb and Dumber To directors, bad jokes are worth the fight!

After two decades, hit goofball comedy Dumb and Dumber is back as Dumb and Dumber To and the sequel owes a big thanks to an unlikely ally: cable television. The adventure comedy based around idiots Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and his best friend Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) may never have become an enduring hit without the boost from continuous play on cable networks TBS and TNT, said writer-director brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly.
“People saw it over and over and over,” said Bobby Farrelly, 56, alongside his older brother ahead of the sequel’s U.S. release on Friday.
“It had a different life of its own because they always had it on. A whole generation of kids know every line,” he added. Like the first film, the sequel is a road trip comedy of stupidity and toilet humor, but this time they are in search of Harry’s long-lost daughter, his last hope for a kidney donor.
“There have been a lot of movies about dumb people, but I believe the thing that people come back to is because they like them,” said Peter Farrelly, 57 of Harry and Lloyd. Although it is unlikely the sequel from Universal Pictures will eclipse its predecessor’s $127 million in U.S. ticket sales, the first film’s prominent position in pop culture offers a measure of vindication for the There’s Something About Mary directors.
The brothers, unassuming Rhode Island natives who choose not live in Los Angeles, say they have fought studio bosses to keep some of the film’s most memorable and stupid – jokes. “All the things that are popular now are things that weren’t really funny (to the studio executives) at the original test screening,” said Bobby. Peter said New Line Cinema, the studio that produced Dumb and Dumber in 1994, frowned on the now-memorable line, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!” Lloyd exclaims when love interest Mary tells him it would be a ‘one-in-a-million’ shot to get together.
The duo believes they found strength in their own numbers when they have had to push back against studio demands. “Eventually you start feeling like a whiny little baby because you’re fighting and fighting, and you start feeling bad,” said Peter. “Then the other guy says, ‘No, no, no. Keep it up.’ That’s how we do our best when we hold each other up.”

Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.