Taglines: A hilarious high-stakes jackpot!
The House is about parents who accidentally spend the money set aside for their daughter’s college tuition. Desperate, they open an underground casino and recruit their friends and neighbors to help run it. They join Ryan Simpkins, Jason Mantzoukas, Rob Heubel, Nick Kroll, and Cedric Yarbrough. Tolman plays a no-nonsense financial advisor, while Watkins plays Mantzoukas’ character’s soon to be ex-wife, who wants to divorce but can’t because he won’t sign the papers.
The House is a 2017 American comedy film directed by Andrew J. Cohen, and co-written by Cohen and Brendan O’Brien. The film stars Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Ryan Simpkins, Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Rob Huebel, Michaela Watkins, and Jeremy Renner, and follows a couple that opens an underground casino in their friend’s house in order to pay for their daughter’s college tuition.
Principal photography began on September 14, 2015 in Los Angeles. The film was released on June 30, 2017, by Warner Bros. Pictures, received negative reviews from critics and grossed $34 million worldwide against its $40 million budget. The House grossed $25.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $8.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $34.2 million, against a production budget of $40 million.
In North America, The House opened alongside Despicable Me 3 and Baby Driver, as well as the wide expansion of The Beguiled, and was projected to gross $10–14 million from 3,134 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.4 million on its first day (including $800,000 from Thursday night previews). It went on to open to $8.7 million, marking the lowest studio debut of Ferrell’s career as a lead actor. In its second weekend the film made $4.8 million (a drop of 45.2%), finishing 7th at the box office.
About the Story
After losing their daughter’s college scholarship, husband and wife Scott (Ferrell) and Kate (Poehler) team up with their neighbor Frank Theodorakis (Mantzoukas) to start an illegal casino in Frank’s home to raise money for their daughter’s tuition. Frank’s wife, Raina (Watkins), divorces him due to his gambling problem.The casino operation proves to be running smoothly until they discover that one of the gamblers (Zissis) caught counting cards. The Johansens and Frank confront him but Scott accidentally chops off the man’s middle finger.
This earns him the nickname “The Butcher” and makes the whole city afraid of his family, which inadvertently increases their profits. Several thousand dollars away from gaining $500,000, they are caught by a city councilor Bob Schaeffer (Kroll) and a police officer (Huebel) who confiscate their money and order them to close down the casino. Nonetheless, they continue their business in the neighbor’s house which burns down after being invaded by a mobster (Renner) who works with the man whose finger had been chopped off.
Having admitted their plot to their daughter, Scott and Kate team up with her and the police officer who had let them loose to steal the money back from Schaeffer. After being caught, Schaeffer reveals his plot to steal money from the city budget for him and his lover (Tolman), who leaves him and returns back to her husband (Scovel). Schaeffer is arrested while Scott and Kate use the money they took back from him to pay for their daughter’s tuition.
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The House (2017)
Directed by: Andrew Jay Cohen
Starring: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Andrea Savage, Allison Tolman, Michaela Watkins, Rob Huebel, Andy Buckley, Ryan Simpkins, Kathy Corpus, Christina Offley, Gillian Vigman
Screenplay by: Andrew Jay Cohen, rendan O’Brien
Production Design by: Clayton Hartley
Cinematography by: Jas Shelton
Film Editing by: Evan Henke, Michael L. Sale
Costume Design by: Christopher Oroza
Set Decoration by: Lauri Gaffin
Art Direction by: Elliott Glick
Music by: Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, sexual references, drug use, some violence and brief nudity.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: June 30, 2017
