9. The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)
The original
The Naked Gun introduced many to the comic brilliance of Leslie Nielsen in his classic signature role of Sergeant Frank Drebin, and was a modest comedy hit, grossing $78m against a $12m budget. The sequel similarly posted good results, making $86m against a $23m budget. While the original film, the only one written by Jim Abrahms and Jerry Zucker - who served merely as producers on the latter two films - is unquestionably the best of the bunch, the other two also had their moments, with the third having a nice stab at mocking the Academy Awards. It was, though, the first one to be directed by Peter Segal rather than David Zucker, and grossed a disappointing $51m on a $30m budget, giving the impression that the law of diminishing returns had indeed kicked in. It also won two Razzie Awards, for O.J. Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith's performances, which have done little to aid its reputation over the years. Nevertheless, Paramount apparently did consider making a fourth film, though figured that given the third film's underwhelming performance, it might have been more profitable as a straight to video feature. Here comes the kicker, though; they wanted to make it without Nielsen, as they considered him too large an expense for the film to make a profit this way. I don't know about you, but the idea of a Naked Gun film without Nielsen's Drebin makes me feel a little ill, and with Nielsen's unfortunate passing a few years ago, it's best to let the series rest with what in actual fact was a pretty decent third film, even if it underwhelmed quite severely at the box office.