What is the highest-grossing comedy movie of all time?
Comedy movies and breaking the box office tend not to go together. That’s not because certain comedy films don’t have mass appeal or due to any inherent bias against the genre, though. Many of the best-loved, most celebrated films in the history of cinema have been comedies, including efforts such as City Lights, The Rules of the Game, Some Like It Hot, La Dolce Vita, Dr Strangelove, Annie Hall and Do the Right Thing, to name just a few.
The problem is, though, that comedy doesn’t tend to be as all-encompassing and inclusive as, for example, family-friendly action adventure stories. Not everyone finds the same things funny, and a sense of humour typically tends to appeal to one particular demographic over another.
Humour necessarily involves someone being laughed at, either by someone else or themselves. And while a comedy film’s target audience might find it funny, others could even feel that they’re on the wrong end of the film’s jokes. Take the Sacha Baron Cohen movie Borat, for example. It garnered fans and acclaim for its lampooning of American culture through the guise of a fictional Kazakh journalist but incensed the entire population of Kazakhstan, who felt they were the butt of offensive and inaccurate stereotypes.
The most successful comedy movies at the box office strike a careful balance between their objective of making the audience laugh and making their story and characters as inclusive as possible. If they’re able to include humour that whole families can enjoy, even better. Humour might not be one-size-fits-all, but as long as there’s something for everyone in a comedy movie, it tends to do well with cinema-goers.
So, which comedy has been most successful?
Look no further than 2023’s highest-grossing film Barbie, which took in a staggering $1.45 billion at the box office. That’s almost $100million more than its nearest competitor, The Super Mario Bros Movie. And more than $600m more than the live-action comedy which comes closest to its takings, the 2021 Chinese comedy movie Hi, Mom.
Barbie ticks all the boxes for a comedy box-office smash, featuring inclusive and inoffensive characters, as well as jokes on different levels for various age groups to enjoy. Add to that, a best-selling brand of children’s toy, an array of musical numbers written and performed by global pop stars and several of Hollywood’s biggest names, and you have a surefire megahit. Lead actor Margot Robbie alone took home $50 million in earnings from the movie.
Supporting cast member Ryan Gosling took most of the plaudits, though, for his comedic turn as Barbie’s love interest, Ken. But its secondary character, Allan, as portrayed by Michael Cera, made the film’s director, Greta Gerwig, laugh the most. There’s no accounting for taste when it comes to comedy.
