I don’t write about Jason Bateman solo all that often. Usually, we talk about Bateman in context of his famous friends or frequent costars, like Jennifer Aniston. Jason and Jennifer have done several films together and they’re very old friends. Their last film together was Horrible Bosses 2, a sequel to the successful R-rated 2011 comedy. HB2 was released last November, during the Thanksgiving holiday. According to IMBD, HB2 cost $42 to make (and likely half that to promote) and it only made about $54 million at the domestic box office. So when Jason appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, he was asked about HB2 and why in the world it was made. As it turns out, Jason really doesn’t know.
Horrible Bosses 2 seemed like a good idea at the time. The first movie made a surprising $209.6 million after it was released in 2011, and naturally, Warner Bros. saw sequel potential. Jason Bateman, who starred in both films, saw it differently.
“The second one was garbage as far as box office goes,” he said of the film, released over Thanksgiving weekend in 2014. “Who knows whether it was on the merits or when they released it, but it did not do any money…A lot of people saw the first one, but there are plenty of films that made a lot of money where no one is interested in seeing another one. People just weren’t interested in seeing another one. ‘We saw the first one, we had fun, and I don’t need to go see a second one.'”
Bateman later joked that the audience was to blame for the sequel. “Don’t go out and buy a bunch of tickets for the first one unless you want a second one, ’cause we don’t have any discipline in this town,” he said. “It’s a path of least resistance.”
So, why agree to star in the sequel in the first place? “That’s a paycheck for everyone. Everyone’s getting paid,” he said. “It’s a freebie.”
Bateman added that no one intended to make a bad movie. “‘We can’t just make it suck,'” he recalled telling his co-stars and the creative team. “‘Everyone’s gonna know it’s a layup, but let’s at least try to make it hold up to some cynical scrutiny.” What went wrong? “It’s just a question of, did anybody really care?…’It’s Thanksgiving, and I’m with my family, and I’m not going to take my mom and dad to go see c–k jokes. I guess there is a reason R-rated comedies don’t get released during a big family vacation.”
Hm. I think it’s important to note that he didn’t say HB2 is a garbage film, he’s saying it was “garbage” as far as the receipts. But that’s just splitting hairs, because he doesn’t sound like he really cared for HB2 that much. For the most part, I hate when actors disrespect their own films, and if Jason had come out of the gate saying “the film sucked,” maybe he would be getting criticized. I think he’s just trying to explain why HB2 didn’t do as well as the first one. This smacks of Hollywood douche though: “That’s a paycheck for everyone. Everyone’s getting paid.” So he did it for his mansion, I guess.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
It might not be sugar coated, but Jason is at least honest. The first one makes money, the second is greenlighted and everyone gets paid. That’s why they do it. That’s why The Hangover became a trilogy, why there was Ted 2, and many other films.
I see nothing wrong here, either. I actually love that he admits working for the money. We all know thats why actors make bad movies anyway.
Everyone gets paid, he says, *everyone*. I’m not reading that as him saying it was for the paycheck at all. It reads like a charitable act. He did it to give the costumers, the grips, the lighting guys, the editors, the casting crew, EVERYONE, jobs. Everyone. Gets. Paid.
Also, hating when people disrespect their own films is weird. People make mistakes and I often look back and say, “maybe that wasn’t my best decision or best work,” I like it when someone can admit something is bad, actors included.
Totally agree. It’s actually refreshing to hear a little honest candor for a change.
And he’s not just talking about the actors, producers and director getting paid. He’s also talking about the thousands of people in Hollywood that no one ever thinks about who also need work. All the crew, the post production companies, even the craft services people.
Sure he is. LOL
He is such a creepy looking character.
I’ve always liked this guy. He seems so genuine and unHollywoodish. I wonder what ever happened to sister Justine?
I just looked her up and her last acting credit was in Modern Family a couple of years back.
Justine was a designer for a while and now she’s a student at UCLA.
Jason said she was studying computer science at UCLA.
I always liked him and the sister, too.
I think she was very under-rated as an actress.
I so wanted to be her back in the Family Ties era.
I related to her the most but I thought Mallory was so pretty.
After his childhood/teen career ended and he couldn’t get hired basically after trying to transition and making a couple of bad choices, he partied for all of his 20s, sex and drugs and alcohol, nightclubs, golfed, very Hollywoodish man/child, and rarely worked and said he had a blast. He knew it was time to grow up and get clean if he wanted to keep his newish girlfriend/now wife, Paul Anka’s daughter, and try to reignite his career. He finally did get clean and went back to really focusing on his career in his 30s and has done well. He said Arrested Development was a game-changer for him and put him back in the ballgame
He will forever look 29. He made a deal with the devil or something.
Really? He looks his age to me.
I think he looks his age, but looks good AT his age. No frozen face mask thing going on.
….OR too tom Cruisey about it either, just a good balance
It was garbage as far as movies go, as well.
Indeed. Some actors will do anything for a paycheck.
and Bateman Bless his heart is pretty much the definition of that very thing, Meme
I didn’t find the movie so bad I couldn’t watch. You sort of go into a movie called “Horrible Bosses” with the idea that its not going to be art. As for doing a movie for the money…sure. Its a living. As someone who spent 20 odd years as a professional musician, you are not always going to be making art. The lucky ones get to ONLY make art. Hell, it would not have been my choice to play the same maddening Broadway tunes over and over again for a cruise ship audience, or watch as YET ANOTHER drunken best man stumbled into the bandstand at a reception, but that’s the gig.
ONE of my many Forever Dongs.
one of?…hussy.
Me too. Loved him since Valerie many moons ago.
Yep, doofus. There’s plenty of Jorts to go around.
@Mary *coughs*
You mean The Hogan Family? Yeah he was one of my first crushes– Justin Bateman and Michael J Fox. Sigh.
hahaha…I should have added…
…ONE of mine, too! 🙂
but Henry Rollins will always be #1. *SWOON*
Y’all mean Silver Spoons?….
I had a crush going back to Little House on the Prairie and Silver Spoons. Lol I’m glad to see how he really made a comeback.
Jason B has been my boyfriend since I was in elementary school watching silver spoons. My husband knows this too and is ok with it.
He even suggested we see HB2 on netflix when it came out.
I heard Jason B on Howard stern***Swoon***he is a dream boat!
Just here for Charlie Day. I know it’s stupid but I can’t like Jason since Juno he was obviously too good at playing that part.
Charlie Day is cute in a crazy way.
yes! since juno he just creeps me out!!
Isn’t his wife the daughter of a very powerful producer and billionaire? He married into money so don’t think it’s for his mansion.
His wife is singer Paul Anka’s daughter. I would assume she grew up with money, but not billions.
Paul Anka’s daughter.
Paul Anka is not a billionaire, and she was not raised by him. Her parents divorced when she and her sisters were small.
Sure he is. LOL
He is such a creepy looking character.
Hell, I’d do it for the mansion.
I’d rather see someone make – and I like the way he put it – a bad movie that they at least tried to be good in vs. someone pouting in front of a camera all day or pawning off morning sickness pills and tea and waist trainers.
I think since he’s not made a big deal about his ‘art’ there’s less expectation that he should only do the best movies and as someone who really does more comedy he has some leeway.
Bad movie but I agree it’s a tricky thing. Quality and box office have very little connection unfortunately. If we argue they do, then we would have to identify Avatar as one of the greatest films ever made…and then the terrorists win. 😉
That movie was shite.
It was. First one hilarious, second one was too similar to the first. I call it The Hangover effect. First one did surprisingly well and then they kept making them and the money they made was going down and the critics and audiences hated them. I’m glad this one stunk it up so there is no possibility for a third film.
I was talking about Avatar, though.
When a movie gets made – EVERYONE gets paid – even the folks we don’t see on screen. Those other people may just need the money more than the actors (duh) and when the studios WANT to make more films, why should the rest of the industry suffer because a specific film is not up to snuff, so to speak? They are making movies, not curing cancer – if a film is not an artistic piece or even turns out to be ‘garbage as far as box office goes’, does it truly matter? We all have to pay the rent and feed our children. Even if he did it for his mansion, other people’s bills also got paid through the making of the film, and even if those people only get paid hourly or day wages, they probably needed the money and were happy to get the work.
I think the end credits should be shown at regular speed on TV so the audience can see just how many people contribute and earn something.
‘Shallow Hal’ has a very lengthy and well done ending credit that shows photos of many crew members.
I watched that Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman movie again recently, The Switch, because it was free on Amazon Prime. He was sooooo good in that movie. I love him, I fell asleep during the middle of Horrible Bosses 1, so I had no desire to see the second one. Maybe I was just tired that day, because when I woke up the last 30 minutes was good and everybody else enjoyed it.
Sequels should be illegal. I can’t recall ANY sequel that was as good as the first movie.
Godfather II.
Great call Jayna, wasn’t thinking about that at all.
I actually liked the first better. But I agree with you it was a very good movie. But that’s about it I think?
I shiver at the thought of all the other sequels. First of the worst are the Matrix’s sequels
dang, Jayna, your reply wasn’t here when I posted mine, but great minds and all that!
I like the second one better too……..although maybe it’s because I find Robert DeNiro sexy sexy………..AND he was speaking in a foreign language!
VC, DeNiro was FINE in that movie.
: Taken care of me? You’re my kid brother! You take care of me? Did you ever think about that? Huh? Do you ever once think about that? Send Fredo off to do this! Send Fredo off to do that! Let Fredo take care of some Mickey Mouse nightclub somewhere! Send Fredo to pick somebody up at the airport! I’m your older brother, Mike, and I was stepped over!
@funcakes
That, and the last scene, when Fredo is the only one that congratulates him on joining the Marines……….so sad.
@doofus
He was so smooth….good Lord. Plus I’ll NEVER forget that woman (I think she was a model or something) who wrote her autobiography and got all pissy because she had a two week affair with DeNiro in the seventies (where he stared into her eyes the entire time during sex), and then he didn’t call and tell her that he was getting married a year later. Lol. But yea……..I’ve always thought of him like Liam Neeson, after that. Although he doesn’t have a famously large……appendage. Lol.
funcakes, my bf and I say “I can handle things…I’m smahhht!” all the time!
VC, how do YOU know about DeNiro’s…uh…”appendage”? is there something you’re not sharing?! 😉
@doofus
LOL, I wish! But unfortunately, I don’t think he’s done us like Liam Neeson (bless him, for running naked on film, going swimming naked, wearing a kilt…..and many, many other things)…..but I just haven’t heard any rumors that he’s…….well endowed. But maybe they’re so well dickmatized, that they can’t even say anything about it. HA! That must be why his ex girlfriend, the one who looks like Chloe Sevigny, hasn’t been screaming about it to the hills. She’s still confused.
P.S. I’m pissed netflix took off all of the good DeNiro movies. I started watching Taxi Driver a while ago, but didn’t get to finish it.
Godfather II was pretty close. though I prefer the first, I have a lot of friends who think the second was actually BETTER than the first.
oh! and Aliens…
I like the second Godfather more than the first, but the third one was an abomination.
And yes to the Aliens. But that success was in large part to the genius, James Cameron. Seriously, 90% of his movies are hits. And the other 10% are very well directed.
I have taken an oath to never watch the third Godfather movie as I’ve heard ONLY bad things about it.
@doofus
I watched the third movie first (it was on AMC)….and I was like eh, beyond Sofia Coppola’s meh acting, I don’t see why people trash it. But then I saw the first two!!!!! OMFG. I had no idea Al Pacino was THAT good looking and just…..THAT. Of course, I’m still having flashbacks fromhis cameo in “Jack and Jill”……..but wow, he was smooth.
he WAS smooth…and now he’s like a caricature of himself…but he was perfect as Michael Corleone.
when he says “Ah, that little farce you played with my sister. You think that would fool a Corleone?”…CHILLS.
VC. – Watch Pacino in Serpico. Yummm!
Terminator 2, Back to The Future: Part II, The Empire Strikes Back.
Oh and Troll 2.
Actually, I would argue that Troll 2 is far better than the first Troll.
Empire was by FAR the best of the original trilogy.
Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. I love that film and I don’t care who knows.
Toy Story 2, Aliens, Mad Max 2.
IJ and the Temple of Doom was one of the worst. Kate Capshaw’s caterwauling made me sick.
I get these 80’s child star men mixed up. they are so similar. is he the one that is married to Rebecca Romijn?
that’s Jerry O’Connell.
“we don’t have any discipline in this town,” he said. “It’s a path of least resistance.”
Truth! It’s as Ann as the nose on Plain’s face.
HB2 probably ended up making some money, it made more than double its budget, just nothing like the first one. It is so much a case of studio execs having no imagination, creativity or risk, and assuming just because people enjoyed 1 thing and it did well, they’ll want more and more and more. Some things are better left to just stand alone as a success.
I think Jason is a great comedic actor and is hysterically funny – has been since he was a kid – but I kinda get the feeling he’s a d!ck in real life …
I’ve though this ever since I watched some commentary on an old AD DVD…he was making fun of the fact that Judy Greer had a TINY zit on her forehead in one scene, and I mean, like, REALLY going after her about it, it wasn’t funny at all. I was like, “Isn’t this guy in his 40s? Really?” It was very fratty-douchtastic.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO……please God, just. No.
He’s not the first nor the last actor to make a bad movie. But hes among the few who admits going it for the cash. And I respect that.
I kinda liked HB2. Never saw HB1 though.
One of the best parts about HB2 was Kevin Spacey, even though he was in it for only a split second. His blooper seen during the end credits was hilarious.
I think he’s hot and very good at being funny, I’m sure he has British behavior he’s a child star, and still working and doing a good job at it, I loved arrested development and his character . Love me some Bateman
Brat-ish behavior
He’s absolutely gorgeous.
I don’t mind celebs criticizing their own films. People in the arts do it all the time–musicians and dancers complain about bad performances, writers will look back on certain books they wrote and cringe, singers may regret releasing a song. Not sure why actors can’t do it either.
BOX OFFICE? How about both 1 & 2 were simply awful.
The movie actually made $106 million – there’s a world outside of North America, you know? While domestic receipts are very valuable to Hollywood, international audiences have become increasingly important. Horrible Bosses 2 probably still made a profit. It was underwhelming, not garbage in terms of box office.