Chevy Chase and Bill Murray - both huge stars...both crushed it on SNL...both left to pursue movies...
Chevy left after one short season, and did in fact become a huge star.
Foul Play (not as fondly remembered as some of his others, but grossed 46 million domestic...which is 107 million in today's dollars...I asked Wolfram Alpha...)
and then of course Vacation (145 million domestic, inflation adjusted.)
Fletch (106 million...etc.)
European Vacation (100 million)
Spies Like Us (142 million)
Three Amigos (80 million)
Christmas Vacation (121 million)...That's an enviable winning streak there!
then,
Nothing but Trouble (14 million), and....
Memoirs of the Invisible Man (21 million)....
Cops and Robbersons (what? anyway...15 million)....
slight reprieve with Vegas Vacation (47 million)....
Not only did he never get back to stardom, he pretty much dropped off the cultural radar. Why?
Murray stepped away from SNL, and immediately had a giant hit...
Meatballs 143 million
followed by
Caddyshack (with Chevy Chase of course) 100 million
Stripes 200 million
and then, the megahit:
Ghostbusters 470 million
to be sure, Bill Murray then had a long string of mis-fires after that...but one thing he did, that Chevy Chase did not, and I believe opened the door to the kind of career he has vs. the one Chevy Chase...
After Meatballs, Caddyshack, and Stripes...an incredible trifecta of comedy that pretty much created the entire smart/juvenile comedy genre...and just before the monster hit of Ghostbusters...he took a supporting part in Tootsie.
Playing against one of the all-time comedic greats, in one of the all-time great comedies, Bill Murray was perfect. He was his funny smart deadpan wiseass self...but it was within the context of a much different type of movie than he'd been in yet. A comedy built on character, directed by a master.
While Chevy kept going back to the same well, or making movies like Dirty Work (directed by Bob Saget?)...Murray had Tootsie under his belt, Murray had a Harold Ramis in his corner - cranking up Groundhog Day.
It wouldn't be for another 15 years that he was cast in Rushmore, leading to the next phase of his career...the elder statesman of comedy (not that he's old)...all that sublety and nuance that was overlayed with the smirk, is still there, but the smirk is mostly gone, replaced by a world weary ennui that resonates with contemporary audiences.
And so Bill Murray keeps getting cast in some wonderful movies.
Chevy Chase struggles for a relevant career.
So, which path is Will on?
I think he is at that point in his career. He's had his hits, a few mis-fires, but, essentially, everybody knows the act now. Smart of him to go to Broadway, smart of him to try things like Stranger than Fiction...but he hasn't found that layer, or that project, like Tootsie was for Bill Murray. Taking the best of his persona, and presenting it in an entirely different context, laying the groundwork for evolution.
Land of the Lost opened to what are being called disappointing numbers. The reviews have been pretty brutal. And he puts out a lot of movies! In the last 6 years, he has appeared in 18 movies, 15 of which he was the featured star. Those are like John Wayne, studio-system numbers. So who is making the kind of movie these days that could capture the essence of Will Ferrell, but put a spin on it, make it seem like...hey, here's a guy that is going to be around for-EVER. Because he is getting close to having a career that is running on auto-churn.
Also...twitter sentiment seems to be running, I'm guessing...60% liking Land of the Lost, 40%, not so much. Which is a much higher pct of "liking" than the critics (rottentomatoes.com = 26%).
Which brings me to my next post, for tomorrow...what should the studio do to follow up the soft opening of Land of the Lost? Generally speaking, they usually do nothing. It opens big, has legs, everyone's happy or opens big, doesn't have legs, less happy, but whatever, or opens soft...everybody steps away. Those are the usual possible scenarios. However! I have ideas. Next post, what should Relativity/Universal do to get the movie the legs it needs?
#landofthelost