Johnny Knoxville’s Biggest Box Office Hit Is A Movie He Never Actually Appears In

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Johnny Knoxville is now and will forever be associated with “Jackass.” As the captain of that chaotic ship, it’s his baby. Even though he’s moving on from that life, as “Jackass: Best and Last” is bringing 25 years of insane stunts to an end, it’s always going to be the first thing anyone thinks of when they ponder his career. Be that as it may, none of those movies rank as the biggest hit of his career, in terms of pure dollars and cents at the box office.

While all of the “Jackass” movies have been very successful at the box office, Knoxville’s biggest theatrical hit came in the form of a 2014 superhero movie — one in which he never even appears on screen. The movie in question is director Jonathan Liebesman’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Produced by Michael Bay, Paramount hoped that the filmmaker could work some of his “Transformers” magic on the heroes in a half-shell.

Knoxville voiced Leonardo in the live-action take on the comic book heroes. Knoxville was added to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in April 2014, mere months before it was scheduled to hit theaters. Pete Ploszek played Leo on set via motion-capture, but the powers that be felt the need to bring in some star power for the character’s voice later in the process. This came at a time when Knoxville was leaning harder into acting, attempting to diversify his filmography following “Bad Grandpa.”

“My son is a huge fan of the Ninja Turtles, so I thought, you know, if I want to score some points with my kids, that’s why I was very happy to take the job,” Knoxville said of voicing Leo in a 2014 interview with ScreenSlam.

With all due respect, Johnny Knoxville’s contributions to the movie were unquestionably minimal. He merely recorded his lines in a booth, while Pete Ploszek and the other actors did the heavy-lifting on set. “Reacher” star Alan Ritchson played Raphael and hated making these “TMNT” movies, rather vocally, I might add.

In any event, Knoxville was involved, and he gets to count it as a commercial success. No two ways about it. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” hit theaters on the weekend of August 8, 2014, and topped the charts with a $65.5 million opening weekend domestically. It topped “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which was in the midst of becoming Marvel’s most unlikely hit, earning $42.1 million on its second weekend.

Critically speaking, Michael Bay’s live-action take on the Turtles didn’t move the needle much, with a lousy 20% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a pretty sour 50% audience rating. Be that as it may, against a reported $125 million production budget, it finished its global run at the box office with $485 million, putting it in the top 20 for the year, just above “The LEGO Movie” ($468 million) and below “Rio 2” ($498 million).

It was a financial success and remains the highest-grossing movie Knoxville has ever been in, even though he never actually appears on screen. His second-biggest was 2002’s “Men in Black II” ($441 million worldwide). While he appears in the flesh in that one, it was another relatively minor role.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” does not rank high for most fans of the franchise, with the original 1990 live-action movie and 2023’s animated “Mutant Mayhem” serving as much better representations of the characters, as is the general consensus.

To whatever degree Johnny Knoxville is owed credit and/or blame for the movie’s perceived failures is another conversation entirely, but there’s no denying it worked out financially. It remains the highest-grossing “TMNT” movie to date. As a result, Paramount was quick to move forward with a sequel, albeit without Knoxville’s involvement.

Instead, Pete Ploszek voiced the character in 2016’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” which was directed by Dave Green. Knoxville, for his part, didn’t have a clear answer as to why Paramount and the filmmakers decided not to bring him back for the sequel.

“I have no idea! I’m like why am I not doing the voiceover for this?” Knoxville said in a 2016 interview with Rama’s Screen. “I don’t know what happened. But I wish them all the luck in the world.”

This iteration of the franchise flamed out pretty quickly. “Out of the Shadows” was a major disappointment at the box office, with just $245 million worldwide against a reported $135 million budget. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3” never happened, as Paramount eventually decided to take the franchise in a different direction. We’ve yet to see a live-action incarnation of Leo and the gang on screen.

You can grab “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.