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For a time, Eddie Murphy was a truly unstoppable star. Beginning in the 1980s with his stand-up comedy career and continuing with the blockbuster success of films like “Beverly Hills Cop” (the title of which has been a lie for more than 40 years), he was a force to be reckoned with. Indeed, one of his biggest hits came in 1996 in the form of “The Nutty Professor,” a remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis-led comedy of the same name. However, 30 years later, that movie has now become one of Murphy’s biggest flops, in a roundabout way.
Over Labor Day weekend, Universal Pictures decided to re-release “The Nutty Professor” on 571 screens, with new theatrical releases such as Adam Wingard’s bloody John Carpenter riff “Onslaught,” the sequel “Fall 2: Deadpoint,” and the Mark Wahlberg-headlined “By Any Means” led a fairly quiet holiday frame. Unfortunately, nobody noticed.
Director Tom Shadyac’s once very successful comedy made just $24,000 over the weekend (not counting the Monday holiday). That gave it a historically lousy $42 per-screen average. With that, it now owns the third-worst per-screen average ever for a re-release in its first weekend. The only ones to perform even worse were the 2025 re-release of the Amy Schumer-starring comedy “Trainwreck” ($13,000 opening/$16 per-screen average) and the 2020 re-release of the documentary “RBG” ($34,000 opening/$34 per-screen average). Mind you, the latter happened back when most movie theaters were temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Nutty Professor” even narrowly edged out the 2025 re-release of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” ($35,000 opening/$43 per-screen average) in terms of per-screen average. So, what the hell happened? Mostly, Universal didn’t do much to advertise the re-release, so audiences didn’t show up.Plus, it was on a holiday weekend where people were busy doing other things. Simple as that.
The Nutty Professor’s 30th anniversary was completely ignored in theaters
There were also flashier movies available to choose from this weekend, including “The Odyssey” and “Coyote vs. Acme.” The situation certainly wasn’t like this time last year when Universal’s re-release of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” topped the box office. That was more heavily advertised and a more roundly-beloved blockbuster. “The Nutty Professor” performed very well in its day, but it’s not the kind of movie people are going to rush back out to see on the big screen again, even setting aside the lack of advertising.
“The Nutty Professor” centers on Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy), a scientist celebrated for his know-how but cruelly mocked for his weight. So, after a date goes south, he uses a ground-breaking weight-loss solution he’s invented on himself. However, as a side effect, he develops an obnoxious second personality, whom Klump names Buddy Love. And while Buddy proves to be more popular than Klump, his bad behavior quickly spirals out of control.
In its day, “The Nutty Professor” was a massive hit. Against a reported $54 million budget, it made $274 million worldwide. It even won Best Makeup at the Oscars, and for good reason, as Murphy convincingly played seven different roles in the movie. It was a major demonstration of his abilities as a comedic actor.
A sequel, 2000’s “Nutty Professor II: The Klumps,” was not nearly as successful, taking in $166 million worldwide on a bigger budget. In 2010, Murphy claimed he was writing a third “Nutty Professor” film, but it’s yet to materialize. As for this re-release, it’s really more of an unusual statistic in the cinema history books more than anything else.
You can grab “The Nutty Professor” on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.
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