Will Ferrell’s ‘Elf’ Earned $173 Million at the Box Office
Few Christmas movies make it from box office to classic, and few do it as fast as Will Ferrell’s Elf. The somewhat unusual holiday flick, directed by Jon Favreau, remains a fan favorite nearly 20 years later. Though the movie changed from its original concept a bit, clearly, this was a good choice. Elf performed well in theaters, and many still watch it to this day.
What is the Will Ferrell movie ‘Elf’ about?
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Favreau claims that the original script was much more comedy focused than the final version of Elf. It was also geared toward an older audience, which might have precluded it from being a Christmas classic.
Christmas is about family for many, and a movie that can’t be enjoyed by the whole family probably wouldn’t have done well during the holiday season.
In its final version, Elf was about sharing Christmas with family, even though that family may not look like a traditional family. In the film, Buddy is a human adopted by Santa’s elves. Buddy, played by Ferrell, struggles to fit in at the North Pole. When he learns he has a biological father in New York, Buddy leaves to be with him over Christmas. However, it turns out Buddy has a harder time fitting in with humans than he did with elves.
Maybe it was the theme of feeling like an outsider, or that of finding family during the holiday season that made the movie such a hit. Either way, Elf’s success is undeniable. The numbers speak for themselves. It is one of the highest-grossing Christmas movies of all time, according to Forbes.
‘Elf’ pulled in a whopping $173 million at the box office
In 2011, Forbes published a list of the top 10 highest-earning Christmas movies. Elf came in at No. 3, having earned $173 at the box office. That’s more than all three of Tim Allen’s Santa Clause movies. It was topped by Tom Hanks’s Polar Express, which earned $182 million, and Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Carrey’s Grinch came in at No. 1, with $260 million earned.
Forbes published a more recent list of the top 25 highest-earning Christmas movies in 2018. On that list, Elf is listed at No. 6. The new list has Home Alone and Home Alone 2 included, which knock Elf down by a hair. Also, Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch, an animated Universal film, came out in 2018 and made around $190 million at the box office.
‘Elf’ was going to have a sequel
If Elf 2 had ever seen the light of day, it would have surely been on the Forbes Top 10 list. But unfortunately, a planned sequel for Elf never got made. The official line was that Ferrell’s schedule was too full to commit to a second Elf. He also claimed that he didn’t want to make a bomb that would ruin Elf’s hard-earned reputation.
However, there are rumors that Favreau and Ferrell didn’t get along, and that’s why Ferrell refused to film a sequel. It was apparently a disappointment to Ferrell’s co-star, James Caan, who was looking forward to a fat Elf 2 paycheck.
