Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Brigsby Bear (2017) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Kyle Mooney, Mark Hamill, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins, Ryan Simpkins DIRECTOR: Dave McCary CINEMATOGRAPHY: Christian Sprenger MUSIC: David Wingo PRODUCTION: 3311 Productions, Lord Miller, Kablamo!, YL Pictures

Box Office Performance

Brigsby Bear earned $681,632 in worldwide box office revenue.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Brigsby Bear was co-written by Kyle Mooney and Kevin Costello, and directed by Dave McCary in his directorial debut. Whenever Costello and Mooney could write together, they would write fast and messy, with Costello polishing it while Mooney worked at SNL. Mooney was fascinated by children's television shows from the 1980s, which he felt combined "happy-go-lucky and positive meets the creepy, weird, and psychedelic."

Their positions at SNL allowed them to cast their film with big names such as Mark Hamill, who plays Ted, the main villain. They hoped to have viewers intrigued by the retro nature of the bunker, which they infused with a "low-rent Splash Mountain" feel. For McCary, he had always hoped to direct something dramatic, as opposed to his more comedic material in the past. Part of James's journey in the film, including his fear that people would not enjoy his film, came from a genuine place for the filmmakers. In addition, when making the film, they discovered that in many ways, they were documenting their friendship of creating videos together.

The film was shot in mid-2016 in Utah during Mooney and McCary's break from SNL due to the geography. The Utah Film Commission put out a press release in June 2016 announcing that six films had been granted incentives to film in the state, including Brigsby Bear. They shot the film with a small, close-knit group and likened the experience to summer camp. After shooting the film, McCary had to complete editing while still working at SNL.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

No awards data currently available for this title.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The site's critical consensus reads, "Audiences attuned to Brigsby Bears strange frequency will be moved by its earnest – and endearingly original – approach to pop culture's impact and the creative urge."

Manohla Dargis from The New York Times summarized it as a "sweet and sometimes delightful melancholic story," which she praised for its direction in tackling subjects about imagination and love. John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter found it to be "a charming, surprisingly underplayed paean to pop-culture obsession." Geoff Berkshire of Variety praised every aspect of the film from its cast to script, but singled out the art department's successful presentation of the Brigsby show and the underground bunker from the opening scenes. Vultures Emily Yoshida analyzed it as asking questions about the impact of fandoms along with "the purging effect of storytelling." A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club felt it could have been a "soulful fairy tale," but ended up "a quirky sitcom recovery fable about transforming our childhoods through art to overcome them." Leslie Felperin, writing for The Guardian, deemed it "overly whimsical," but also "likable enough, even if it contains precious few belly laughs."

Stephanie Merry from The Washington Post perceived the film's genuine tone as fresh and that it "never ventures into the caustic simply for the sake of comedy." Conversely, David Sims of The Atlantic felt the film ends up too "blandly optimistic" but felt it was "hard to fault Mooney and Costello for choosing the sweeter path". The Boston Globe Tom Russo surmised "the [sincere] approach can be a reach, but on the whole it works better than you might guess." Entertainment Weekly Chris Nashawaty considered it a "slight, handcrafted indie that's sweet, skewed, and feels a bit like a skit stretched out to feature length." David Ehrlich of IndieWire felt the film veered into formula, concluding that it "settles for a weak trajectory that isn't good enough to be weird."