Office Christmas Party

Office Christmas Party is a 2016 American Christmas comedy film directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck and written by Justin Malen and Laura Solon, based on a story by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. The film stars an ensemble cast, including Jason Bateman, Olivia Munn, T. J. Miller, Jillian Bell, Vanessa Bayer, Courtney B. Vance, Rob Corddry, Kate McKinnon, and Jennifer Aniston, and was released on December 9, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. It grossed $114 million worldwide.

Office Christmas Party
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
Screenplay by
Story by
Starring
Music byTheodore Shapiro
CinematographyJeff Cutter
Edited by
  • Jeff Groth
  • Evan Henke
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures[1] (Worldwide)
Mister Smith Entertainment[2] (EMEA)
Release date
  • December 5, 2016 (2016-12-05) (New York City)
  • December 9, 2016 (2016-12-09) (United States)
Running time
105 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$45 million[4]
Box office$114.5 million[4]

Plot

In December 2016, Josh Parker (Jason Bateman), Chief Technical Officer of Zenotek's Chicago branch, meets with his lawyer, Ezra (Matt Walsh), to finalize his divorce in time for the holidays. Zenotek meanwhile has failed to meet its quarterly quota, and interim CEO Carol Vanstone (Jennifer Aniston) threatens to lay off 40 percent of the staff, cut bonuses, and cancel the annual Christmas party. Her brother, branch manager Clay (T.J. Miller), is desperate to keep his staff. Carol harbors resentment toward Clay, whom she believed was her father's favorite, and threatens to shut down the branch. Josh and Clay, along with Josh's head of tech, Tracey Hughes (Olivia Munn), propose partnering with financial giant Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance), whom they are having lunch with later that day, and Carol gives them the chance to win his business. Walter is pleased with the pitch, but concerned with another recent branch closure at Zenotek, and feels the company is more about the budget than their people. Clay invites him to their Christmas party in hopes of showing him that their company is in good standing. Before leaving town, Carol offers Josh a position at her New York headquarters to which he declines.

Clay funds an exorbitant Christmas party, much to the chagrin of Mary (Kate McKinnon), the head of Human Resources. Joel (Sam Richardson) takes DJ duty, but the party struggles to pick up even with Tracey inviting Chicago Bulls player Jimmy Butler as a friend. While initially reluctant, Walter is inadvertently doused with cocaine when it is accidentally fed into a snow machine and succumbs to his free-spirited nature. Throughout the party, various employees cut loose: Nate (Karan Soni) tries to impress two of his staff, Tim (Andrew Leeds) and Drew (Oliver Cooper), by hiring an escort named Savannah (Abbey Lee) to pretend to be his girlfriend, though Nate found out when she gives a handjob to a fellow employee; Clay's assistant and single-mom Allison (Vanessa Bayer) attempts to hook up with new hire Fred (Randall Park) but stops when he reveals he has a mother-child fetish; and customer service supervisor Jeremy (Rob Corddry) cuts loose on the dance floor with Mary, whom he previously despised. Josh and Tracey get stuck on the roof and nearly kiss before Jeremy interrupts them. Back on the dance floor, Clay eventually wins over Walter's business, and the celebration gradually grows more chaotic as employees begin partaking in orgies, damaging company property, and doing drugs.

Carol's flight is cancelled due to weather, and she rushes back to the office when she hears about the party from her Uber driver (Fortune Feimster), who took people to the party. Though Carol is initially impressed with receiving Walter's business, Walter injures himself attempting to swing off a balcony after a conversation with Clay, and is later discovered to have been fired from his firm after his sudden business closure, nullifying the contract and leaving Zenotek helpless. Carol decides then and there to shut down the branch. To add insult to injury, she reminds Josh about the job offer aloud to everyone, especially Clay. Despite Josh stating he didn't accept it, the surrounding employees angrily shun him. Tracey reveals that she was given the same offer but explicitly rejected it where Josh kept it open. Feeling betrayed about what he heard from Carol, Clay rushes off with Savannah's emotionally unstable pimp, Trina (Jillian Bell), to party elsewhere, though Trina is more interested in robbing Clay of his wealth that he is actually keeping on his person. Josh, Tracey, Mary, and Carol race off to save Clay.

One of the guests learns that the branch is being terminated and convinces everyone to throw out and destroy all the company equipment and burn everything in sight, forcing security guard Carla (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) to put down the unruly, now destructive and rebellious party. Clay ends up racing Trina's car towards an opening drawbridge, attempting to jump the gap, a feat he'd earlier mentioned to Josh. Josh drives Mary's minivan alongside him, and tries to convince Clay not to jump, but he is still heartbroken from Carol offering Josh the job, along with her past insults. Convinced he's a failure he still decides to jump, regardless of whether he makes it or even survives. After everyone, including Trina, fails to convince Clay to pull over, Josh threatens to jump the gap with him, and Clay reluctantly allows it. Scared of dying, Carol forces the steering wheel away from Josh, swerving into Clay's car and causing him to miss the drawbridge, jumping and crashing into an internet hub, which disconnects the entire city.

Trina and Savannah are arrested for their crimes, while Clay is taken to the hospital. In the wake of the internet blackout, Tracey realizes how to run a new innovation she'd been working on for several years that combines internet Wi-Fi with wired connections through the city's power grid, which had previously failed due to her inability to take the real-world interference of the existing internet signals into account. They race back to the destroyed office to set up her tech, and when it works, internet is restored to Chicago. This new innovation saves the jobs of the entire team, with Clay apologizing for how his father treated Carol. Walter, who is in the same hospital as Clay, agrees to join the team. Josh and Tracey kiss amidst the ruins of their office. Jeremy opens up to Mary, and Nate and Allison agree to go on a date. The whole group meets Carol and Clay as he's released from the hospital, and they all go out for breakfast, driving recklessly on the way.

Cast

Production

In 2010, Guymon Casady approached Josh Gordon and Will Speck with an original idea of his, to make a movie about a holiday office party. They subsequently set the concept up at DreamWorks Pictures, and it was later rewritten by Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky, and Laura Solon.[5] On February 19, 2016, it was announced that Speck and Gordon would also direct the film, which would star Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, T. J. Miller, and Kate McKinnon.[5] The producers were set as Scott Stuber, along with Entertainment 360's Guymon Casady and Daniel Rappaport.[6] On March 8, 2016, Randall Park joined the film,[7] and Olivia Munn was cast on March 17.[8] On April 4, 2016, Abbey Lee Kershaw joined the cast.[9] Karan Soni, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, and Jamie Chung were added on April 5, 2016,[10] and on April 6, 2016, Rob Corddry, Andrew Leeds, and Oliver Cooper were cast as well.[11]

Principal photography on the film began late March 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia.[12] In early April, filming took place in Chicago, Illinois,[13] and after that production moved to Hiram, Georgia, where it shot from April 19 to June 1, 2016.[14]

On casting Aniston in the film, Gordon stated, "We created this character for Jennifer because she's absolutely fearless when it comes to playing somewhat unlikeable characters in comedies. For her, the more daring the role, the better."[15]

Release

Office Christmas Party was released in the United States on December 9, 2016, by Paramount Pictures.[5][6] Paramount also distributed it overseas, except in several territories where Mister Smith Entertainment handled sales, including the United Kingdom and Australia, where it was handled by Entertainment One.

Reception

Box office

Office Christmas Party grossed $54.8 million in the United States and Canada and $59.7 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $114.5 million, against a production budget of $45 million.[4]

Office Christmas Party was released alongside The Bounce Back and the wide expansions of Miss Sloane and Nocturnal Animals, and was expected to gross $13–15 million from 3,210 theaters in its opening weekend.[16] It went on to make $16.9 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office and on par with recent R-rated comedies like How to Be Single and Sisters.[17]

Critical response

Office Christmas Party received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 40% based on 181 reviews and an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Its cast of gifted comics is good for a handful of laughs, but Office Christmas Party's overstuffed plot ultimately proves roughly as disappointing as its clichéd gags and forced sentimentality."[18] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film had a score of 42 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[20]

Home media

The film was released on Digital HD on March 21, 2017,[21] before being released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 4, 2017.[22][23]

In Germany the title was changed for the home release, with the film named Dirty Office Party.[24]

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References
  1. Hazelton, John (December 7, 2016). "'Office Christmas Party': Review". Screen International. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
  2. McNary, Dave (November 4, 2016). "AFM: Mister Smith Pacts Power its Picture Pipeline". Variety. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  3. "Office Christmas Party (15)". British Board of Film Classification. November 25, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2016.
  4. "Office Christmas Party (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  5. Kit, Borys (February 19, 2016). "Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman to Star in 'Office Christmas Party' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
  6. A. Lincoln, Ross (February 19, 2016). "Dreamworks Invites Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston To 'Office Christmas Party'". Deadline. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
  7. Kit, Borys (March 8, 2016). "Randall Park Joining Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman in 'Office Christmas Party' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  8. Kroll, Justin (March 17, 2016). "Olivia Munn in Talks for Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman's 'Office Christmas Party' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  9. Jr, Mike Fleming (April 4, 2016). "Abbey Lee Set For DreamWorks' 'Office Christmas Party'".
  10. "Jamie Chung, 'Deadpool' Actor Join 'Office Christmas Party'". April 5, 2016.
  11. "Rob Corddry Joins Jennifer Aniston's 'Office Christmas Party' (Exclusive)".
  12. "Filming over Chicago River for 'Office Christmas Party'". Loop North. March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  13. Metz, Nina (March 28, 2016). "Jennifer Aniston comedy 'Office Christmas Party' to film here this week". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  14. "Find out how you can be an Extra in 'Office Christmas Party' in Chicago and Atlanta". OLV. March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  15. Xie, Hong (November 24, 2016). "Office Christmas Party – Hitting Theaters 12/9!".
  16. "'Office Christmas Party' Hopes To Bring Cheer To Another Dull Weekend; 'La La Land' Tunes Up – Box Office Preview". Deadline Hollywood.
  17. "'Moana' Threepeats at #1, 'La La Land' Opens Big in Limited Release". Box Office Mojo.
  18. "Office Christmas Party (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  19. "Office Christmas Party Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  20. CinemaScore on Twitter (December 9, 2016). "Office Christmas Party". Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  21. "Jennifer Aniston Stars in OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY, Coming to Blu-ray Combo Pack 4/4". Broadway World. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  22. "Office Christmas Party at Amazon.com". Amazon.com. ASIN B01LTHZX6I. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  23. "Office Christmas Party (2016)". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  24. "Dirty Office Party". Amazon.de. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
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