Bobby Farrelly

Bobby Farrelly (birthname: Robert Leo Farrelly Jr.) has been a successful director-writer-producer of trend-setting comedies with his filmmaker brother Peter since their smash 1994 feature debut, Dumb and Dumber (with Bobby co-writing and co-producing), starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, and earning ($247-plus million) nearly 15 times costs ($17 million), and establishing a new comedy “gross-out” style that dominated American movie comedy for the next generation.

Bobby (with Peter) co-directed and co-wrote the big comedy hit, There’s Something About Mary (1998), starring Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller, and Chris Elliott, grossing worldwide for 20^th Century Fox an extraordinary $370 million on a $23 million budget. Bobby (and Peter) wrote and produced Outside Providence (1999), based on Peter’s novel, starring Shawn Hatosy, Jon Abrahams, Amy Smart, and Alec Baldwin, earning back only $7 million costs.

Bobby co-wrote-directed-produced with Peter the hit comedy, Me, Myself & Irene (2000), starring Jim Carrey, Renée Zellweger, Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, and Anthony Anderson, grossing worldwide $149.3 million, nearly three times $51 million costs. Bobby was a producer with Peter of the J.B. Rogers-directed comedy, Say It Isn’t So (2001), starring Heather Graham and Chris Klein, but proving to be their first commercial failure with only a $12 million global gross.

Bobby Farrelly co-directed and co-produced with Peter the live-action sequences in the animated/live-action buddy cop comedy, Osmosis Jones (2001), with the voices of Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, William Shatner, Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott, and Bill Murray, but failing at the box office with a mere $14 million take. The Farrelly Brothers recovered their box-office mojo with Shallow Hal (2001), starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black, with Jason Alexander, and directed-written-produced by Bobby and Peter Farrelly, earning $141 million and over three times its $40 million budget.

Bobby Farrelly was co-director-producer-writer (with Peter) of the mildly received conjoined-twins comedy, Stuck on You (2003), starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, earning only $65.8 million globally on a $55 budget. Bobby co-directed (with Peter) Fever Pitch (2005), the baseball-themed remake of Nick Hornby’s 1997 movie of the same title, co-starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, earning a disappointing $50.5 million gross on a $30 million budget.

As a producer, Bobby gained another credit (with Peter) with the sports comedy, The Ringer (2005), starring Johnny Knoxville, Brian Cox, and Katherine Heigl, earning over $40 million, doubling its $20 million costs. Despite bad reviews, Bobby and Peter Farrelly’s Neil Simon remake, The Heartbreak Kid (2007), with Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Åkerman, and Jerry Stiller, earned a good $128.5 million globally on a $60 million budget. With Peter, Bobby Farrelly was director-writer-producer of another fairly successful comedy, Hall Pass (2011), co-starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Richard Jenkins, and Christina Applegate, grossing over $83 million worldwide on $36 million costs.

Another mildly received comedy from Bobby and Peter Farrelly (again as director-writer-producers) was the present-day-set The Three Stooges (2012), with Sean Hayes, Will Sasso, and Chris Diamantopoulos playing the trio, along with Jane Lynch, Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Hudson, and Larry David, but falling short (with $55 million) of earning twice its $30 million budget.

On the 20^th anniversary of the original movie, Bobby and Peter (again as director-producer-writer) made the sequel, Dumb and Dumber To (2014), reuniting Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, with Rob Riggle and Kathleen Turner, grossing a healthy $170 million on a $50 million budget. Nine years passed until Bobby Farrelly returned to the feature directing chair for the sports comedy, Champions (2023), with Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson, Ernie Hudson, and Cheech Marin.