Last December, for those moviegoers who weren’t devoting their entire viewing attention to the likes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, might have noticed a Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg family comedy come and go in its own theatrical release called Daddy’s Home. Despite the generally negative critical reception to the studio film, the reunion of Ferrell and Whalberg, coming after their previous turn together in The Other Guys from 2010, proved to be a box office hit worldwide, and made back a grand total of $240.4 million in ticket sales on a $50 million budget.
Whether or not Ferrell fans were ultimately pleased with his usual antics in his latest film proved largely irrelevant when measured against the financial returns received from those viewers who decided to hedge their bets in the hopes of seeing something mildly entertaining, albeit overtly familiar and relatively tame in terms of thematic content. Regardless of the film’s inherent worth, the success of Daddy’s Home did not go unnoticed by distributor Paramount Pictures, as a sequel is now being put into official development.
According to Deadline, Paramount and Gary Sanchez Productions have just announced that Daddy’s Home 2 has just signed Ferrell and Whalberg to return for a sequel, with director Sean Anders and screenwriter John Morris coming back to reprise their respective roles behind the camera, too. There is no word yet on the return of any other supporting actors from the first film, and a proper logline for the sequel has yet to be released.
Given the recent string of studio comedy hits from frequent filmmaking collaborators Anders and Morris, most notably including the 2014 like-minded sequel Horrible Bosses 2, things might just come together for Ferrell and Whalberg in the production of Daddy’s Home 2. Even if there appears to be little reason creatively for the new movie to go into production, perhaps there will be enough viewers who had a good enough time with the first installment to be intrigued and willing to see the second.
Box office returns are likely the key contributor to this latest Hollywood production, and as such there are undoubtedly going to be quite a few naysayers to this latest Ferrell studio film come the time of its ultimate theatrical release. Then again, maybe enough comedy fans will be willing to entertain the whims of the studio, and try to have a good time with Daddy’s Home 2 despite its needlessly drawn-out premise.
Screen Rant will keep you updated on all information related to Daddy’s Home 2.
Source: Deadline
