There’s one important thing to know about Nate Bargatze: He isn’t edgy. The clean humor found in his specials is Bargatze’s not-so-secret weapon, making him the highest-grossing stand-up in 2025. He once told The Washington Post he wanted to be as reliable and ubiquitous as Walmart.
Now he’s bringing his cultural sway to movie theaters with “The Breadwinner,” in which Bargatze’s character, also named Nate, struggles to take care of his kids after his wife (Mandy Moore) gets her business idea funded on “Shark Tank.” It’s a broadly palatable concept recalling “Mr. Mom,” but Bargatze is wagering that his all-ages appeal can revive a dormant genre: the family-friendly, live-action, comedian-led comedy.
“There’s something really absurd that right now it feels risky to make a safe movie,” says Eric Appel, who directed “The Breadwinner.” “This is the kind of thing that should appeal to the broadest audience possible.”
Bargatze’s foray onto the big screen seems to come from a different era when big-budget studio comedies were designed for kids and could still entertain parents, all with a PG — or light PG-13 — rating. Those films arrive now in the form of legacy sequels to now-classics (“Freakier Friday,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”), streaming-service exclusives (Netflix’s “Yes Day,” Hulu’s “Darby and the Dead”) — or they don’t get made at all.
Jeremy Latcham, who produced “The Breadwinner,” maintains that the streaming numbers for classics such as “Big” and “Home Alone” prove there’s a theatrical audience for this type of film.
“We kind of forgot that the movies can be about intimate relations between regular people,” he says.
Latcham grew obsessed with the idea of making a comedy he could share with his 10-year-old daughter after moving to Austin during the pandemic.
On some mornings, he’d hear fellow parents talk about Bargatze at school drop-off, prompting him to reach out to the comedian. Latcham wanted to make a film with the spirit of “Uncle Buck” or “Cheaper by the Dozen,” and he thought studios might trust Bargatze as an untapped star.
“It turns out he had sold a pitch to Tristar because he felt the exact same way,” Latcham said. “He wanted to make this kind of movie. He wanted to see these kinds of movies in [a] theatrical space. He wanted to have that experience with his daughter.”
Straight to streaming
If you squint, there are a few films from the past decade, such as “Instant Family” with Mark Wahlberg, that have scratched the semi-clean comedy itch. But even though that Wahlberg vehicle made a respectable $67 million at the box office, his next movie with a PG-13 rating, “The Family Plan,” ended up on Apple TV.
Streaming services are where the feel-good comedies with broad appeal are hiding, says Daniel Loría, a vice president at Boxoffice Pro. But the dominance of these services — and the death of the home video market — has made them less profitable to make.
In the past, “You could put it out in theaters, it did okay, and then you could really go into it [with] the home-video market and on cable,” Loría says. “Once you lose that second, third and fourth bite of the apple at the revenue window, it all becomes consolidated in a very small pie, which is streaming.”
To fill theaters, major studios have relied on superhero films that meld action and comedy. But despite signs of audience fatigue, studios are still prioritizing films based upon preexisting intellectual property.
“Disney used to make a lot of these [family-friendly comedies] through the Buena Vista label,” Loría says. “Disney live action didn’t always just mean, ‘Let’s remake a cartoon from 40 years ago.’”
Challenges for Bargatze
Even when these movies do make it to the big screen, they don’t always connect with audiences: Heartfelt comedies starring popular stand-ups such as Sebastian Maniscalco and Jo Koy have bombed.
As theater ticket prices have increased, moviegoers seem less willing to take a chance on medium-sized films, often waiting for them to arrive on streaming services. Bargatze hopes to circumvent that issue with the “Nate Rate,” a discount that varies across different theater chains.
“Everything is so expensive these days, and taking the whole family to the movies can add up quick,” Bargatze said in an email to The Post. “I wanted people to feel like they could actually go to a movie night together without stressing about the cost.”
It isn’t clear that Bargatze’s bet is going to pay off. With largely negative reviews, “The Breadwinner” is expected to gross up to $10 million in its opening weekend, according to an analysis from Boxoffice Pro, though Appel hopes word of mouth around the film will be strong.
It remains to be seen if Bargatze can be a bankable star along the lines of Robin Williams or Tom Hanks.
Still, there’s potential to attract a broader audience than just families, says Mike Bowers, chief executive of the Harkins Theatres chain.
“It’s hard to run into anybody that doesn’t like Nate,” Bowers said. “He’s — regardless of the type of comedian — just funny and entertaining. That’s obviously why he sells out everywhere.”
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