Universal and Imagine Entertainment are looking towards yet another sequel to The Nutty Professor franchise, which started in 1996 centered on the character talents of Eddie Murphy. Reinventing the story from the original 1963 Jerry Lewis farce, Murphy turned it into the story of a shy, overweight Science Professor, who invents a formula to make himself thin and charismatic.
Will reviving the franchise do any wonders? The 2000 sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps only earned a worldwide $162 million, which is a significant drop from the original's $270 million. However, Murphy's return to the comedic character/"fat-suit" genre in 2007's Norbit bowed a cool $159 million worldwide. What does that mean? Well, Norbit was not the franchise film, and considering that after a 7-year absence, it only made a few million less than the last NP film, the studio probably figured that there's a market for another one. (And sadly enough, they would be right. I mean, people actually PAID to see Norbit.)
This concludes today's lesson in why movies that shouldn't be made, get made.
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