Over the past twenty years, Jamie Kennedy has made the headlines for several reasons, from starring in feature films to marrying a Hollywood starlet like Jennifer Love-Hewitt. He's done quite well for himself.
Recently, the Scream alum talked about his movies, past and present. Kennedy singled out Malibu's Most Wanted because of the movie's lackluster reception. It managed to wrangle in $34 million from a $15 million budget. And while the profit wasn't remarkable, it covered all the bases. More importantly, Kennedy has a unique take on the financials.
In a video posted to Kennedy's Facebook page, he points out that Malibu's Most Wanted made $82 million against a $12 million budget. His numbers don't exactly match up to Box Office Mojo and other sources, but they are close enough. Kennedy's estimate for the budget at twelve instead of fifteen would be accurate since marketing probably spent three million on promoting the film. His evaluation of the movie's profit, however, requires further analysis.
There's quite a substantial gap between the posted total of $34 million and the $82 million that Kennedy says Malibu's Most Wanted made. He's not trying to inflate the numbers for effect, though. The veteran actor presumably sees how much the movie makes in VOD sales, past PPV sales, and physical sales still coming in. Stats for the sales not included in movie tickets are coincidentally nonexistent, so Kennedy is likely correct about the total gross.
Whether the star's financial analysis is accurate to the dollar, he has a point about downplaying success. Because while typical assessments labeled Malibu's Most Wanted a break-even situation, a low-budget film making twice its initial investment is already a noteworthy accolade. Then, tacking on what the studio made from video monetization, Malibu's Most Wanted probably added a substantial sum to its previous box office total.
What's surprising are the movie's critic scores. Rotten Tomatoes rated it at a measly 32 percent, while audiences scored Malibu's Most Wanted slightly over 50 percent. Mind you, for a movie with a decent box office total, the reviews feel unjustified. We've witnessed movies flopping at the box office, and when they do, their reviews correspond with ticket sales. Seeing as how Malibu's Most Wanted surpassed expectations and then some, the reviews deserved to be more positive. Maybe it was the cheesy tone, corny lines, or exaggerated depiction of the ghetto that affected reviews. Whatever the reason, perhaps the 2000s diamond-in-the-rough wasn't as bad as critics made it out to be.
Malibu's Most Wanted can be rented from Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime Video, or Apple TV. The movie isn't currently on streaming platforms.