The Naked Gun stormed into theaters on August 1, 2025, and now, just two months later, Paramount+ is speeding it into your living room on September 30. Detective Frank Drebin Jr. and his bizarre brand of crime fighting are heading to streaming sooner than you’d expect.
This isn’t some random comedy sequel dusted off for nostalgia. It’s a proper return to one of Hollywood’s weirdest and most beloved comedy franchises. The original Naked Gun movies of the late ’80s and early ’90s gave Leslie Nielsen a second career as the king of deadpan absurdity. Now Liam Neeson is stepping into the family business as Drebin’s son, Frank Jr. The joke practically writes itself: the Taken guy, known for throat-punching kidnappers, now flailing his way through slapstick chaos.
Akiva Schaffer, of The Lonely Island fame, directs the madness, while Seth MacFarlane puts his Fuzzy Door Productions stamp on it. The cast is full of both familiar faces and new recruits. Pamela Anderson, Danny Huston, Kevin Durand, CCH Pounder, and Liza Koshy all suit up, with Paul Walter Hauser playing Captain Ed Hocken Jr. And if you’re a longtime fan, you’ll spot cameos from “Weird Al” Yankovic and Priscilla Presley, the only two original stars crazy enough to come back for another round.
The movie didn’t exactly crush at the box office out of the gate, debuting behind Fantastic Four: First Steps and The Bad Guys 2 with a $17 million opening weekend. But comedy has legs. Since then, The Naked Gun has grossed $102.1 million worldwide, $52.6 million of that from North America and $49.5 million from international markets. That’s not bad for a movie whose biggest gag involves Neeson looking like he accidentally wandered in from Schindler’s List.
Of course, what’s just as interesting is how quickly the movie is hitting digital. The so-called 45-day theatrical window was meant to be the truce between studios and cinemas, but that deal seems shaky. AMC CEO Adam Aron even insisted earlier this year that the major studios had agreed to stick with it. Universal and Warner Bros. apparently shrugged, figuring the math is simple. If a movie flops, push it to digital after two weeks. If it’s a hit, let it run for a month, then double dip with streaming. Paramount seems to be playing the same game. $100 million at the box office is nice, but streaming brings the money straight home.
So get ready. On September 30, The Naked Gun lands on Paramount+.
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