14 DAY TRIAL // “The Heat” with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy was a comedy that proved that not only male buddy cop comedies can be successful at the box office. “Hot Pursuit” with Sofia Vergara and Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon was meant as a worthy follow-up, but it turned into one of the biggest flops of 2015.
The film currently stands at an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics, and an average of 43% from the audiences. Whichever ranking you choose to consider, reception for the film wasn’t good and that’s also apparent in its box office gross, which barely covered the production costs.
Playing the blaming game
Vergara and Witherspoon went into making the film thinking they would deliver a box office winner. They’re also producers on it, which means they had an invested interest in it to be a hit, and for some time, they actually believed they could deliver it.
During the production and on the promo trail, which saw them flying all over the world together, they became close friends. Sadly, the moment it became clear the movie was tanking, they turned on each other, Radar Online reports.
Jim Toth, who is married to Reese but also works as her agent, is also repping Sofia, so he tried to keep them on good terms for as long as he could. But when the claws came out, there was nothing more he could do.
As of right now, Reese and Sofia hate each other, while also throwing the blame around for who was the most responsible for the movie flopping.
“Sofia and Reese have turned the movie’s failure into a brutal blame game,” an insider says. “Reese blames Sofia’s accent and ‘irritating laugh,’ while Sofia blames Reese for not being sexy or funny enough.”
Reese will recover, Sofia not so much
The same report claims that Sofia is the most bitter after the flop because she was really hoping it would help her transition from the small screen to the big one as a leading lady.
She’s still on “Modern Family” and the pay is great, and she’s been getting plenty of offers for supporting roles. She wanted “Hot Pursuit” to work out for her to show that she could carry a movie on her own or as part of a duet, because that would have brought her more work.
Reese, on the other hand, will recover just fine from this dud. She is, after all, an Oscar-winning actress who has proven along the years she can do both drama and comedy to great success. She’s also keeping very busy as a producer and already has an impressive list of critical hits to boast of.