'Bruce Almighty'Jim Carrey's decade-long ride as Hollywood's king of comedy basically ended in 2003 with Bruce Almighty, the story of a TV news reporters who acquires the powers of God. It grossed an astonishing $484 million and seemed to suggest that Carrey was invincible, but the following year Carrey's Bruce Almighty co-star Steve Carell released The 40 Year Old Virgin, kickstarting the Judd Apatow revolution and making Jim Carrey suddenly seem very passé. This didn't mean, however, that having Steve Carell in your movie guaranteed it would be a hit: That's something Hollywood learned the hard way when they made Evan Almighty (a Jim Carrey-free Bruce Almighty sequel) and saw it land with a thud.
'Me, Myself and Irene'After the triple shot of Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and There's Something About Mary, the Farrelly Brothers could have gotten any movie in the world bankrolled. The executives at 20th Century Fox must have been salivating when they learned they planned on re-teaming with Jim Carrey to tell the story of a demented state trooper with multiple personalities. The critics were a little split over the finished product, but the film still grossed $149 million. The Farrell Brothers were, however, on the verge of a pretty big slump and didn't really reverse themselves until they teamed up with Jim Carrey once again for Dumb and Dumber To.
'Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls'When Jim Carrey signed onto Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1993, he had very little pull in Hollywood and no ability to remove a sequel clause from his contract. The film was one of the surprise hits of the decade, launching him into superstardom and leading to offers for roles like the next Batman villain and a creepy cable guy in a Ben Stiller movie. Unfortunately for Carrey, he was still legally obligated to deliver on the Ace Ventura sequel. The resulting movie was a huge hit, but most everyone agrees it pales in comparison to the original and reeks of 'contractual obligation.' It soured Jim Carrey on sequels in general, and he didn't agree to make another until Dumb and Dumber To.
'The Cable Guy'Back in 1996, The Cable Guy was widely seen as Jim Carrey's first real misstep. The big-budget, Ben Stiller-directed film crawled across the $100 million mark, but this was a time when most Jim Carrey movies were making at least twice that. Some people thought it was simply too dark and weird, and in recent years the movie become a celebrated cult classic. It was also the first place many people saw Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Leslie Mann. Thankfully, Ben Stiller was allowed to keep directing movies and went on to make Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. Producer Judd Apatow also continued onto bigger and better things, but he'll always remember creating The Cable Guy for the audition where he met Mann, his wife.
'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective had a long and bizarre road to the big screen. Producers considered everybody from Rick Moranis to Whoopi Goldberg for the lead role, eventually going with Jim Carrey, who was then universally known as 'the white guy from In Living Color.' He took the film on the condition that he could re-write the script with his team, and in a short time period they made the movie incredibly bizarre and even added in a surprise kicker straight out of The Crying Game. Hollywood was absolutely stunned when it grossed $107 million on a mere $15 million budget. Nobody ever thought of Jim Carrey as 'the white guy from In Living Color' again.
'The Mask'For reasons that aren't quite clear, few comic books were turned into movies in the 1990s – especially compared to the 2000s. One exception was The Mask, a 1994 Jim Carrey movie based on a series of late 1980s Dark Horse comic books. Putting Carrey in the lead role before Ace Ventura hit theaters, the producers pretty much hit the jackpot: The movie ended up grossing $361 million on a $23 million budget. It also introduced the world to a young Cameron Diaz. A terrible, Carrey-free sequel hit theaters in 2005, but it seems unlikely that a true follow-up film will ever materialize.
Man on the Moon'Expectations were very high for Man on the Moon. Director Milos Forman and the writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski created the brilliant The People vs. Larry Flynt, and Jim Carrey was an obsessive Andy Kaufman fan who bore resemblance to the comedy icon. Critics loved Carrey's all-in performance but were disappointed that the film took great liberties with the truth and never quite penetrated the bizarre head of Kaufman. Audiences were also torn and it grossed just $47 million on an $82 million budget.
