If you haven’t already seen the outrageous Cocaine Bear, what are you waiting for? Unbeknownst to many, this semi-biographical comedy-horror was based on the true story of an American black bear that ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. That same bear suffered an overdose and died, but its body was preserved, stuffed and put on display in a local mall in Kentucky. Isn’t that a delightful thought? Coming from the director of Pitch Perfect 2 and the Charlie’s Angels remake, Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear recounts the events that occurred in 1985 to a semi-accurate degree. In several trailers for the film, the black bear can be seen ingesting cocaine and subsequently going on a murderous rampage, when in real life, this never happened. As we mentioned before, the bear simply overdoses and dies — which is to be expected.
Considering there’s a 500-pound CGI bear used throughout, it’s safe to assume that Cocaine Bear cost the big bucks — and that’s the truth. According to the Wikipedia page (we know, we know), which was verified by several other sources like Deadline and Variety, Cocaine Bear cost somewhere in the $30M to $35M range, which says a lot about how expensive CGI is nowadays, considering the majority of the film takes place in a forest that really isn’t difficult to access and costs little more than renting fees (that’s if it’s even the property of someone else because if not, it’s free). Who knew a 500-pound CGI bear would be so expensive? While we’re making huge technological advancements as a society, obviously it’s leaving a sizeable hole in the pockets of funding organizations.
Banks was joined by screenwriter Jimmy Warden (whom you might know as the boyfriend of Ready or Not star Samara Weaving), as well as producers Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Max Handelman and Brian Duffield. Some of the stars of Cocaine Bear might not be as well-known as Banks and Warden; Antlers star Keri Russell plays Sari, a nurse; Ice Cube’s eldest son O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays fixer/cleaner Daveed; Supernatural‘s Alden Ehrenreich plays Eddie, Syd’s son; Sweet Tooth star Christian Convery plays Henry, Dee Dee’s best friend; young star Brooklynn Prince plays middle-schooler Dee Dee; and the legendary Ray Liotta as Syd in his last film role before his unfortunate death.
So far, considering Cocaine Bear‘s hefty budget, it’s managed to reel in $28.4 million at the box office, so it hasn’t broken even yet — but it’s close enough. Still, that’s pretty impressive considering it only released on Feb. 24 — three days ago. There’s no telling the ‘highs’ that Cocaine Bear will achieve (admit it, that was funny).
