Kick-Ass 2 creator: Jim Carrey boycott 'worth $30 million' (exclusive)

Mark Millar, the creator of the ‘Kick-Ass’ series, reckons Jim Carrey’s press boycott of ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is “worth $30 million” in press coverage - more than the film’s $28 million production budget.

Back in June, Carrey pulled out of promoting the sequel because he thought the finished movie was too violent. The actor, who plays Colonel Stars and Stripes, tweeted: “I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to e (sic).”

Correcting himself, he added: “I meant to say my apologies to others involved with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart (sic).”

[Why 'Kick-Ass 2' is not as violent as the comic]

In an interview with Yahoo! Movies UK, Millar said the comments were “awesome”, adding: “If you think about it, ‘Kick-Ass [2]’ is a $28 million movie. We don’t have the production budget or the advertising budget of a ‘[The] Lone Ranger’ or one of the other big summer movies.

"But we were in the papers more than ‘Lone Ranger’ or pretty much any of the others over the summer. Only maybe ‘Superman’ [‘Man of Steel’] and ‘Iron Man 3’ got more coverage.

“There was a slot on ‘Breakfast News’ talking about it, ‘Good Morning America’ were talking about it. The bean counters at Universal figured out that it was about 30 million dollars’ worth of publicity that we got, so it was more than what the movie cost. Which is amazing!”

Director Jeff Wadlow wasn’t sure about Millar’s claims, saying: “Where does Mark come up with those numbers?! I love Mark. He pulled that out of his ass!”

He went on: “’Kick-Ass’ is about breaking rules. That’s why the movie is so beloved. It says to the audience: ‘Hey, we understand the rules in a superhero movie, we know you understand those rules, lets break those rules together’.  That will offend some people. It turned out one of those people was Jim Carrey.”
 
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays the villain Motherf***er, agreed that Carrey’s comments were good for the film. “I think when you have a movie star like Jim Carrey in your movie, whether its him saying negative comments about it or him just being in it, I think he’s right in a way that it kind of helps. If I heard Denzel Washington say ‘I can't promote ‘2 Guns’ because it’s too violent’, I’d be like ‘woah… I’ll go and see it’.”
 
‘Kick-Ass 2’ is released in the UK on 14 August.