Box Office Bomb: Budget, $42 million. Box office: $30 million domestic, $42 million worldwide.
Creator Backlash: During his appearance on the Empire Podcast mere weeks after the film was released, Steve Coogan said he thinks "in 20 years' time when the dust has settled and people are able to look at Holmes & Watson objectively, [he thinks] people will say 'It's still rubbish'".
Creator Killer: The failure of this film led to Will Ferrell and Adam McKay dissolving their partnership,note further cemented after Ferrell sought a role in McKay's Winning Time that McKay instead gave to, ironically, John C. Reilly, Ferrell's co-star in this film, meaning they probably won't collaborate on a film again (they still remain friends however).
Dueling Works: By pure accident, this film was released around the same time as another John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan starring period piece, Stan & Ollie. (Which was also released by Sony, albeit through their Sony Pictures Classics label rather than Columbia Pictures label.) Difference being, Stan & Ollie was critically acclaimed and made a minor profit.
Fake Brit: Ferrell and Reilly are Americans pretending to be two of Britain's most famous literary characters.
Not Screened for Critics: The film opened on Christmas Day 2018 without having been screened for critics in advance.
Similarly Named Works: There's a 2012 Spanish film titled Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days. Incidentally, both films give a spin on the Sherlock Holmes mythology (this film being a parody and Madrid Days transporting Holmes and Watson to Madrid to investigate Jack the Ripper-style killings).
Star-Derailing Role: This film derailed the star power of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. They had successfully collaborated twice on the hit comedies Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers, so this was expected to become a similar success in Christmas 2018. It instead became a notorious Box Office Bomb with a bad reception from moviegoers in general, eventually nabbing six Golden Raspberry Award nominations and winning four including Worst Picture of the year. Reilly, who started out as a character actor, continued finding success as one (gaining praise for his role as Oliver Hardy in the biopic Stan & Ollie, also released in 2018, and his role as Jerry Buss in the 2022 HBO sports drama Winning Time). Most of Ferrell's film appearances afterwards were cameos or supporting roles at best, though. He did return to leading roles again starting with the 2020 comedies Downhill and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga and continuing with the 2023 comedy Strays (2023), although all three films got mixed reviews from viewers. He has, however, reclaimed a good amount of star power thanks to his supporting role in Greta Gerwig's Barbie which was critically acclaimed and thus far has grossed over a billion dollars in box office revenue.
When the film was first announced, Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell were set to play Holmes and Watson respectively, and Judd Apatow was set to produce it.
The film won four Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture (making it Sony's second win in a row after The Emoji Movie, and the second time such a streak occurred for Sony after Swept Away and Gigli in 2002 and 2003 respectively), Worst Director, Worst Supporting Actor (John C. Reilly) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.
against posters of this movie with the word "Holmies", which some have pointed to as a possible reference to groupies dedicated to James Holmes, the perpetrator of The Dark Knight Rises mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, although some felt that the term "Holmies" should be more associated with this movie.