Anchorman

About

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a 2004 comedy film set in the 1970s about news anchor Ron Burgundy (played by Will Ferrell), his bumbling news team and their professional rivalry with aspiring newswoman Veronica Corningstone (played by Christina Applegate).^[18]

History

On July 9th, 2004, the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was released in theaters, which centers around the protagonist Ron Burgundy and his relationships with his news team and his love interest Veronica Corningstone (played by Christina Applegate).

The Sequel

On July 23rd, 2008, director Adam McKay announced that he and Ferrell had begun working on a sequel to Anchorman.^[9] On April 29th, 2010, McKay tweeted that Paramount had passed on producing Anchorman 2.

So bummed. Paramount basically passed on Anchorman 2. Even after we cut our budget down. We tried.

— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) April 29, 2010

On April 30th, 2011, Ferrell told journalists that Paramount Pictures refused to take on the sequel.^[10] Then on March 28th, 2012, Ferrell appeared on the late night talk show Conan in character as Ron Burgundy, during which he announced the commencement of a sequel to Anchorman (shown below). That same day, the official Twitter account^[16] of Ron Burgundy was launched.

Viral Marketing

In the following months, the promotional account continued to bring the latest updates in casting and production, as well as a series of YouTube teasers which were simultaneously released via Funny or Die, leading up to the unveiling of the official trailer on June 18th (shown below):

In early October, Dodge^[17] began airing a series of more than 70 spot commercials for its Durango SUV starring Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, many of which have garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. In addition, a number of other promotional games were released around the same time, including an iPhone app game titled Scotchy Scotch Toss^[14] and a Dodge-branded mini-game called Hands on Ron Burgundy.^[13]

In late November, Will Ferrell set off on a press tour across the country as Ron Burgundy, starting with co-hosting an evening news program on North Dakota's KX News, interviewing Peyton Manning for ESPN's SportsCenter and announcing the Olympics curling trials for the Sports Network in Canada.

In addition to a string of surprise guest appearances on television, Ron Burgundy's name even made it the front page of Reddit^[15] with a photograph of Will Ferrell, dressed as his fictional character and holding a box of donuts and a malt liquor beverage, ostensibly taken by an onlooker in Milford, Connecticut.

Ron Burgundy's media tour and the Dodge Durango campaign were largely met by positive responses from numerous advertisement news and review sites, with the Chrysler group reporting a 36% boost in November sales over the previous year and FilmSchoolRejects calling the efforts "innovative" for experimenting with the concept of reverse product placement in promoting a film.

Reception

The film grossed $28.4 million on opening weekend and a total of $90.5 million worldwide, outperforming its $26 million budget. As of June 2013, the film has a 66% rating on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.^[7] The film news website Empire^[8] ranked Ron Burgundy as #26 in their list of “100 Greatest Movie Characters” and ranked Anchorman as #113 in their list of the top 500 films of all time.

Fandom

Online Presence

On February 23rd, 2006, YouTuber Sobe58 uploaded a video featuring Will Ferrell's audition tape for the film (shown below, left), accumulating over 2.3 million views and 1,100 comments in the first eight years. On July 20th, 2008, YouTuber John Burgandy uploaded a video highlighting several memorable quotes from the film (shown below, right). In the next five years, the video garnered upwards of 1.37 million views and 1,500 comments.

On December 1st, 2011, a Meme Generator^[1] page titled "Anchorman" was created, featuring a screen capture of Ron Burgundy with captions written from the fictional character's perspective. On the following day, the Internet humor site Funny or Die^[6] highlighted several notable animated GIFs featuring scenes from the film (shown below). In the first two years, the post received over 530,000 views and 6,500 Facebook shares.

As of June, 2013, over 30 pages related to the film have been created on the image macro website Quickmeme,^[5] including "Anchorman I dont know what were yelling about,"^[2] "Anchorman Milk"^[3] and "Anchorman"^[4] (shown below).

Reception

The film grossed $28.4 million on opening weekend and a total of $90.5 million worldwide, out performing its $26 million budget. As of June 2013, the film has a 66% rating on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.^[7] The film news website Empire^[8] ranked Ron Burgundy as #26 in their list of "100 Greatest Movie Characters" and ranked Anchorman as #113 in their list of the top 500 films of all time.

Related Memes

That Escalated Quickly

"That Escalated Quickly" is a memorable quote uttered by Ron Burgundy often used in online discussions and comments as a response to a situation that has quickly gotten out of hand.

Stay Classy

"Stay Classy" is another quote from Burgundy in the film, which is often used as a sarcastic response to an undesirable action.

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

"I'm Kind of a Big Deal" is an expression taken from Burgundy's pickup line to Corningstone uttered during the film's opening sequence (shown below).

Search Interest

External References