With 3,483 playdates, "Bruce Almighty," helmed by comic veteran director Tom Shadyac, who earlier teamed with Carrey on the blockbusters "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" and "Liar, Liar," averaged an all-powerful $24,615 per theater, achieving new career bests for both star Carrey and director Shadyac (his "Liar, Liar" took in $31.4 million its opening weekend). The impressive four-day holiday take established "Bruce Almighty" as the biggest opening ever for a movie based on entirely original material and catapulted it ahead of several past box office record setters, achieving the second-best ever Memorial Day opening (placing behind "The Lost World: Jurassic Park") and second-best ever comedy opening (following "Austin Powers in Goldmember," which had a three-day opening of $73.1 million.)
"This movie is clearly what moviegoers were looking for right now -- a big, laugh-out-loud comedy for everyone. 'Bruce Almighty' provided the holiday audiences with a break between the special effects-laden, action- adventure films out there," said Nikki Rocco, president, distribution, Universal Pictures. "This opening is a phenomenal start to what I'm sure will be an amazing summer for us. The combination of Tom Shadyac directing Jim Carrey in another high-pitch comedy promised a movie event and we definitely delivered on that promise."
"Tom Shadyac is one of the studio's most valued filmmakers and we are lucky to continue to enjoy a great relationship with him," stated Stacey Snider, chairman, Universal Pictures. "His superb direction of Jim Carrey created onscreen alchemy. Not only is Carrey a comic genius at the top of his form in this movie, but he has proved to be an incredible partner working on behalf of it, willing to help promote 'Bruce Almighty' in every way."
"Bruce Almighty's" comic formula transcended the standard demographic breakdowns of young/old, male/female, with exit polls demonstrating that the comedy appealed to a very wide audience demographic -- with half of the audience polled under 25 and the other half, 25 and older. The picture skewed slightly female, who comprised 53% of the audience (compared to 47% male).
"Bruce Almighty" stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a "human interest" television reporter in Buffalo, New York, who is discontented with almost everything in life, despite his popularity and the love of his girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Aniston). At the end of the worst day in his life, Bruce angrily ridicules and rages against God -- and God responds. He appears in human form (Morgan Freeman) and, endowing Bruce with all of His divine powers, challenges Bruce to take on the big job and see if he can do it any better.
The film is produced by Tom Shadyac, Jim Carrey, James D. Brubaker and Michael Bostick. The executive producers are Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber. The writers are Steve Koren ("Saturday Night Live," "Seinfeld"), Mark O'Keefe ("NewsRadio") and longtime Carrey/Shadyac collaborator Steve Oedekerk, a staff writer on "In Living Color" who later wrote "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" (which he also directed) as well as Shadyac's hits "The Nutty Professor" and "Patch Adams."
