Melissa McCarthy's 'The Happytime Murders' has been a disaster at the box office, and made less than every single Muppet movie

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September 19, 2018 2:37 PM

"The Happytime Murders" may have been made by the company behind the Muppets, but it certainly didn't feel like it. Especially at the box office.

“The Happytime Murders” had Melissa McCarthy starring, the son of Jim Henson at the helm, and a hilarious trailer — but none of that seemed to matter.

The really raunchy puppet movie was slaughtered by critics (it has a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and has only earned $20.6 million in the US since its August 24 opening ($24.5 million worldwide).

The weak box-office coin makes it one of the lowest-earning wide releases of the 2018 summer. But that's not all. It also didn’t make close to what any of the Muppet movies that had a theatrical release took in domestically (even “Muppets Most Wanted”).

It’s a real black eye for the movie’s production company, The Jim Henson Company (“Happytime Murders” director Brian Henson, son of Jim, is its chairman), which decided to take a risk and make a puppet movie without its cash-cow Muppet characters, and paid the price.

“Great trailer, disappointing film,” Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, said to Business Insider summing up the movie’s performance. “‘Happytime Murders’ would have been better off mimicking the Muppets we know and love.”

Here’s a look at the box office performance (counting inflation) of all eight Muppet movies that were released theatrically:

Note: All box office figures below are from .

8. "Muppets From Space" (1999) — $30.3 million

Unadjusted: $16.6 million

7. "Muppets Most Wanted" (2014) — $58 million

Unadjusted: $51.1 million

6. "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992) — $61 million

Unadjusted: $27.2 million

5. "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984) — $70.4 million

Unadjusted: $26 million

4. "Muppet Treasure Island" (1996) — $72 million

Unadjusted: $34.3 million