Does Nate Bartgatze Have the Juice to Open a Theatrical Movie?

I do not want to discount Nate Bartgatze’s popularity. I know he’s a hugely popular touring comedian. In 2024, his tour brought in a whopping $82 million. He’s such a successful comedian that he plans to parlay it into opening a Nate Bartgatze theme park. I think he probably has the juice to do so.

But can he open a movie? That’s an entirely different question. Outside of his fanbase, Nate Bargatze is basically best known for his George Washington sketches (and variations thereof) on SNL and his not-so-well-received stint as the host of the Emmys. Will that translate into moviegoers?

We’re about to find out. Bartgatze co-wrote, alongw with Dan Laguna, and stars in The Breadwinner, opposite Mandy Moore. It looks like an old-school comedy that traffics in a lot of gender stereotypes about Dads being ill-equipped to take care of children. Maybe that still plays well in the heartland. Maybe. But it looks like a streaming movie, and one that’s not all that different from Bill Burr’s Netflix comedy Old Dads, which was very bad but did well … for streaming.

It is a rough marketplace for comedies right now. I’d love to see that change. I’m just not sure that Nate Bartgatze is the man to change it, and I’m even less sure that The Breadwinner is the movie to do it. We’ll find out on March 13th.