One Of Will Ferrell’s Funniest Movies Is Dominating On Netflix
One of Will Ferrell's classics is now climbing the charts on Netflix.
This article is more than 2 years old
Netflix can always use more comedies. When they get their hands on a Will Ferrell classic, it’s bound to rise up the charts. Now, one of his funniest movies is climbing the streaming service’s charts in the United States. Step Brothers is currently the seventh most-watched movie.
Step Brothers was originally released in movie theaters in 2008. It’s one of several movies Will Ferrell and filmmaker Adam McKay teamed up for. This time around, the pair got John C. Reilly on board and made a movie only they could have made.
The idea behind Step Brothers is that two adult men are still living with their single parents. Their parents then get together. This forces the two adult men, played by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, to move in together and share the same bedroom. The pair go through a lot of the same trials new step-siblings endure as children, such as immediately hating each other upon meeting one another, being forced into a small space together, and then bonding and getting excited about bunk beds. Part of the idea behind the film was to show how immature the 40-year-old stepbrothers are. This happens by introducing a younger brother who is more successful, having the pair beat up by actual children, and having the pair bond and bring out each other’s strengths as they face challenges in the story.
While some people think that Step Brothers is one of Will Ferrell’s funniest movies, others haven’t enjoyed it. The film currently has a 55% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences put it at a much higher 69%. The split seems to come from the type of immature humor employed in the film. In the scene where a large group of children attacks Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, they’re made to lick dog feces. Some people will find that funny. Some people aren’t going to finish Step Brothers.
At the box office, Step Brothers did okay. On a budget of $65 million, the Will Ferrell movie earned back $128 million at the worldwide box office.
While audiences may have been split, and the box office take just passed acceptable numbers for the high-profile comedy, director Adam McKay was invested in the Will Ferrell film. In 2011, the filmmaker even tweeted that they were working on a Step Brothers rap album. They followed up saying that they weren’t kidding and had a major producer involved.
Ultimately, that project never came to be. However, talk of other Step Brothers projects, including a sequel movie, has happened over the years. While Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have said that Step Brothers doesn’t have the same level of fanbase as Anchorman, they’ve insisted that there is still more story they can tell. They’ve shared details about a sequel like the pair being more mature, having jobs and children, but then something terrible happens to knock one of them back to square one. The brother knocked back to square one would revert to their old ways and the pair would need to work together to find their way up and out again. The sequel idea was still on the table in 2014, but Adam McKay was clear at the time that it wasn’t a top priority, so if it happens, he wasn’t expecting it to happen for a while.
These days, both Adam McKay and Will Ferrell have many other projects on their plates. Adam McKay is about to see his release of the Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence movie Don’t Look Up. That film is also coming to Netflix. Will Ferrell released Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga on Netflix in 2020, a comedy he co-starred in with Rachel McAdams. Fans are waiting to see him in a new series with co-star Paul Rudd called The Shrink Next Door. That new series will also feature Kathryn Hahn, who had a small role as Alice in Step Brothers.
Currently, Will Ferrell is filming a new Christmas movie with Ryan Reynolds. The pair are working on a retelling of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. The musical will be called Spirited. Since most of Will Ferrell’s best movies see him team up with a hilarious co-star, hopes are high for the 2022 release.
