Why should Steve Carrel do live films

Steve Carell has just made his fourth hugely successful animated film. If you missed the headlines, it looks like Despicable Me 2 will earn twice it's production budget in one week (domestically), and an equal amount in the foreign markets.

7/3/2013 Despicable Me 2
7/9/2010 Despicable Me
3/14/2008 Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!
5/19/2006 Over the Hedge

His live films have been wildly uneven. His successes have been mostly small budget movies like "Little Miss Sunshine" .

Yet, he keeps trying. For Christmas we will get Anchorman:The Legend Continues.

I don't like Steve Carell, he really isn't that talented.
Thats why his movies suck, he sucks. The Office part
could have been played by almost anybody.

Quote: Pacomartin

For Christmas we will get Anchorman:The Legend Continues.

I've seen this trailer a couple times now....it's the absolute worst I've ever seen. I question the wisdom of the producers who would think the viewers would pay based on this trailer. It's amazing that it was greenlit though probably several levels of management to bring it to the public. Someone should be fired for this trailer. IMO. I wouldn't walk across the street to see it for free.

We've agreed that comedians are extremely well paid for movies. A comedy is often identified with a specific comedian, while dramas and action flicks could be made with a number of different actors.

Steve Carell is often paid $12-$15 million for a film. But these movies seem to be relatively small numbers of tickets sold, compared to the 20 to 33 million tickets sold for Matt Damon in the Bourne films. In addition comedy films have very limited value in foreign markets. Even the British have a different sense of humor than Americans.

Millions of tickets sold (14 live action film)
18.2 Get Smart
17.1 The 40-Year-Old Virgin
14.6 Evan Almighty
13.7 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
12.4 Date Night
10.6 Crazy, Stupid, Love.
9.2 Dinner for Schmucks
9.1 Little Miss Sunshine
8.2 Hope Springs
6.9 Dan in Real Life
2.8 The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
1.5 Sleepover
0.9 Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
0.1 The Way, Way Back

I am not including Bruce Almighty, one of the most successful comedies of all time (over 40 million tickets domestically). Steve Carrel's part in that movie was relatively small.

But Steve Carell's 4 animated films will probably sell more tickets than all 14 live action films. Plus they have huge circulation overseas.

I'm just wondering if it's salary. Maybe voice actors are simply not paid as much.

I mean Anchorman is a decade old, and it was a mediocre film. It's just screams for a sequel.

Everytime Carrell makes a movie I go, WTF. Why do
they keep paying him, most of his movies are giant
flops. Hollywood is a mystery to me. Voice movies
I can't comment on because I've never seen one.
Seriously, not one. I saw 15min of the first Shrek,
and it put me to sleep. Cartoons are boring.

So in 2010 the movie Despicable Me has a production budget of $69 million. It earned $251.5m in domestic and $291.6m in foreign
A rate of return that crushes almost every movie that year (animated and non-animated).

In 2013 they make the sequel for a budget of $76 million (roughly 10% increase). It is crushing the boxoffice, making almost double the original film , so far.

Presumably they cut costs by removing the expensive voice talent for small characters from the original film:
Julie Andrews
Will Arnett
Jack McBrayer
Danny McBride
Mindy Kaling

and replacing them with considerably lesser known voices
Steve Coogan
Kristen Schaal
Moises Arias
Nasim Pedrad
Laraine Newman

The seven main character voices remain the same actors. Jason Segal as the villain is replaced with Benjamin Bratt as a new villain.

Despicable Me 2 has now passed $300 million domestically to surpass Man of Steel which cost three times as much to produce. Given the rate at which the expensive movies are crashing this year, it might even finish the year in second place.

So with a $76 million budget this animated film is going to crush all these expensive films. And there are huge product tie-ins, not to mention books and toys.
The Lone Ranger: Production Budget: $215 million
Oz The Great and Powerful :Production Budget: $215 million
Jack the Giant Slayer: Production Budget: $195 million
World War Z: Production Budget: $190 million
Fast & Furious 6: Production Budget: $160 million
White House Down: Production Budget: $150 million
After Earth: Production Budget: $130 million
G.I. Joe: Retaliation: Production Budget: $130 million
R.I.P.D. : Production Budget: $130 million
Oblivion: Production Budget: $120 million
A Good Day to Die Hard: Production Budget: $92 million

And Die Hard 6 and Fast & Furious 7 are starting
filming any time now. Hollywood is so creative.
Harrison Ford has agreed to do another Indiana
Jones movie. He'll be 73 when they start shooting.
He's also coming back as Hans Solo, but he'll only
be 72 in that one.

Quote: zippyboy

I've seen this trailer a couple times now....it's the absolute worst I've ever seen. I question the wisdom of the producers who would think the viewers would pay based on this trailer. It's amazing that it was greenlit though probably several levels of management to bring it to the public. Someone should be fired for this trailer. IMO. I wouldn't walk across the street to see it for free.

I check trailers from time to time for a market research firms, this movie trailer was got the most positive response of any I checked last week.

Quote: AZDuffman

I check trailers from time to time for a market research firms, this movie trailer was got the most positive response of any I checked last week.

Hard to believe even a twelve-year-old would laugh at that. I must have higher standards than the folks who think that trailer was funny. The studio isn't aiming that movie at people like me, yet I have to sit through it before watching the movie for which I paid. They usually don't offer up obvious chick-flick trailers in front of Fast & Furious (or similar) because that would piss off the mostly male audience. So I'd appreciate not being subjected to this insipid Anchorman 2 trailer ever again. Thanks in advance.