King's Ransom is a 2005 American black comedy film directed by Jeffrey W. Byrd and written by Wayne Conley. It stars Anthony Anderson, Jay Mohr, Kellita Smith, Regina Hall, Donald Faison, Nicole Ari Parker, Charlie Murphy, Loretta Devine, Brooke D'Orsay, and Leila Arcieri. The film was released in the United States on April 22, 2005, and was a critical and commercial bomb.
Contents
Plot
Malcolm King is a wealthy, selfish, obnoxious businessman who is about to divorce his wife Renee. She plans to ruin him financially during the court proceedings, and King is willing to do anything to protect his fortune.
He enlists his mistress, Peaches, and her brother, Herb, to stage a mock kidnapping. They are to make and receive a huge ransom demand, which would keep the money safe from his wife.
Unfortunately for him, two other people have similar plans to kidnap him; Angela, an aggrieved employee and Corey, a good-natured yet hapless nobody who lives in his grandmother's basement and needs $10,000 after being threatened by his adopted sister.
Cast
Anthony Anderson as Malcolm King
Jay Mohr as Corey
Kellita Smith as Renee King
Donald Faison as Andre
Regina Hall as Peaches Clarke
Nicole Ari Parker as Angela Drake
Loretta Devine as Miss Gladys
Charlie Murphy as Herb Clarke
Leila Arcieri as Kim Baker
Brooke D'Orsay as Brooke Mayo
Roger Cross as Byron
Jackie Burroughs as Granny
Christian Potenza as Officer Holland
Lawrence Dane as Detective Conley
Lisa Marcos as Raven
Robert Norman Smith as David
Brenda Chrichlow as Anita
Carrie Colak as Lori
Kwasi Songui as Ronald
Ingrid Hart as Sheila
Luis Oliva as Pablo
Ilona Elkin as Rachel
Nicolas Wright as Timmy
Lila Yee as Miss Ho
Production
Writing
The screenplay was written by Wayne Conley — who was a writer for the Nickelodeon series Kenan & Kel, a live-action series that aired Nickelodeon from 1996 to 2000.
Filming
Filming took place around 2004. The film was produced on a $15 million budget.
Release
King's Ransom was released in 1,508 theaters on April 22, 2005.
Reception
Box office
King's Ransom was a huge box office disappointment, having $1,417 average. In its opening weekend, the film ranked 10th at the box office and grossed only $2,137,685. By the end of its run on June 2, 2005, it had grossed $4,008,527 in the domestic market, and $135,125 in the foreign market for a worldwide total of $4,143,652.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 2% of 47 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 2.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Filled with crass dialogue, unlikable characters, and overdone slapstick gags, King's Ransom is an utterly inept would-be comedy." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 11 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.