When Adam Sandler hosted Saturday Night Live last year, his opening monologue was a song dedicated to how the show unceremoniously let him go. Joined by close friend Chris Rock, the pair sung about how SNL boss Lorne Michaels cut them both loose out of nowhere, firing them without any warning. But, as Sandler goes on to conclude, “I was fired, NBC said I was done… but then I made over $4 billion dollars at the box office, so I guess you could say I won”.
More anything, it’s fair to say Adam Sandler keeps winning. Although critically panned most of the time, his films (produced under his company, Happy Maddison) never fail to turn a massive profit, with stand-out examples like Grown Ups, Just Go With It, and Pixels each bringing in hundreds of millions on their own. Even weirder, despite how crass and thoughtless his films often are, fans cannot get enough – where does this enduring, baffling appeal come from?
One word: consistency.
For all intents and purposes, Adam Sandler is the Ronald McDonald of the film industry, with his movies being blandly satisfying Happy (Madison) Meals. When a family sits down to tuck into one of his films, they’re not expecting any surprises, nor will they ever get any. His films are rigorously predictable, from the consistent cast members (he must be the only person in Hollywood to still cast Rob Schneider in anything) to the petite blonde woman with an alliterative name that Sandler’s character inevitably falls in love with (Violet Valentine? Babe Bennett? Veronica Vaughn? Valerie Veran?).
The happy purveyor of box-office fast food, Sandler’s throwaway, easily consumable, light-hearted comedies will always have a place within the cinematic ecosystem. As much as Hollywood wants meaty dramas, they also really want a way to entertain families and no one does better at that than Sandler. True, he would rather show a ‘Burp Snart’ (that’s a burp-sneeze-fart hybrid) than challenge hegemonic issues, but the box office results show that audiences are absolutely fine with that.
Moreover, why would Sandler ever shake it up? Netflix originally paid $250m for five films from Happy Madison 2015, and they’ve recently extended that deal further, paying an additional $275m for four more films. With Murder Mystery and Hubie Halloween being Netflix’s biggest releases for their respective years, the deal is obviously incredibly lucrative for both parties, so the Sandman and his friends are getting ridiculous paydays for easy work. Why on earth would he walk away from that?
Additionally, it’s not like Sandler isn’t finding fulfilling creative opportunities away from this deal. He was lauded for his dramatic turn as Howard Ratner in 2019’s Uncut Gems and his comedy special 100% Fresh is almost perfectly named, attaining a 90% score from Rotten Tomatoes. With it recently been announced that Sandler will star in The Spaceman of Bohemia from Netflix, which appears to be another attempt by the actor to finally get that Oscar nom, it would seem that he’s got cinematic side-hustles lined up way into the future.
Perhaps this is why Adam Sandler is so enduring: because he can be utterly great when he wants to be, for whoever he wants. Look at it this way, every time he releases a film, its certain to enamor at least one side of the movie-going public. The high-art film follower will keep coming back to hopefully see Sandler like he was in Punch Drunk Love or Uncut Gems, and the casual fan is already looking forward to Grown Ups 3 and Hotel Transylvania 4. He’s mastered appeasing both sides, in turn.
When Adam Sandler was on the press circuit for Uncut Gems, he leveled a faux threat to the Academy Awards, saying that if they didn’t nominate him for Best Actor for the film, he would release “the worse movie all time” – coming from the man who made Jack and Jill, this obviously wasn’t a hollow threat. But in Sandler’s mind, this situation must’ve been win-win. Either he gets nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the industry, or he makes a ton of money with the subsequent film. His enduring appeal means that he can only succeed.
In the end, he wasn’t nominated for Uncut Gems, so everyone look forward to Grown Ups 3 being announced any day now.
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