Movies 43 -

Commercially, the film was a flop, grossing only $32 million worldwide against a $6 million budget (though marketing costs were significant). It became a punchline on late-night shows and a cautionary tale in Hollywood. Despite—or perhaps because of—its infamy, Movie 43 has gained a very small cult following as a "so-bad-it's-fascinating" experience. Some defenders argue it is a deliberate, meta-prank on the audience: a film that weaponizes its own badness to critique the emptiness of star-driven, high-concept Hollywood comedy. Others see it as an accidental satire of the industry's willingness to humiliate its biggest names for profit.

Actors were reportedly coerced or guilt-tripped into appearing, with Farrelly leveraging personal friendships and contracts. The film was repeatedly delayed, re-edited, and even tested with different frame stories before its theatrical release. Movie 43 was universally panned. It holds a 4% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on over 150 reviews) and a Metacritic score of 18/100, making it one of the worst-reviewed films of all time. Critics used descriptors like "soul-crushingly awful," "not just bad but actively unpleasant," and "a new low for the studio comedy."

The New York Post gave it 0 out of 4 stars. The A.V. Club called it "a collection of the worst comedy sketches ever assembled." Several major critics famously walked out of screenings.

Ultimately, Movie 43 stands as a unique object: a high-budget, star-packed failure that no one intended to be good in a conventional sense. It is the cinematic equivalent of a car crash you cannot look away from—a monument to what happens when good taste, professional judgment, and basic human dignity are all sacrificed for a single, misguided laugh. For better or (mostly) worse, nothing else like it has been attempted since.