This is the second part that deals with the other factors that led to the decline of the R-rated comedy. The first part is here: What Happened to the R Rated Comedy? Part 1.
The next thing I need to talk about is:
3. Mid-budget movies got squeezed
Movies over the last decade or so, ok, let’s say 2008 when the first Iron Man movie came out, seem to have been split between the $100+ million movie and… maybe low budget horror. And when I say low budget, I don’t meant $10,000. That’s Micro Budget. I mean Hollywood low budget. For example:
- Evil Dead (2013) $17 million
- Bird Box (2018) $19.8 million
- Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin budget $200,000 to $1 million
- Evil Dead Rise (2023) $15–19 million
Occasionally you get a Sinners whose budget was $90–100 million, or a Five Nights at Freddy’s whose budget was $20 million. However, those are not the norm.
But generally the movies that had a budget of $30–70 million became an awkward middle ground.
And it wasn’t just comedies that were effected. There were plenty of other genres in this mid-budget range too like adult thrillers, courtroom dramas, romantic comedies, etc. Movies like Goldeneye (1995), Nine Months (1995), The Devil’s Advocate (1997 film), etc.
4. Streaming
It’s slightly hypocritical of me to criticize streaming as it really democratized filmmaking for many ultra low budget and micro budget filmmakers. For clarity, SAG-AFTRA defines ultra low budget as $300,000 or less and Micro Budget as $20,000 or less.
I, for one, benefitted from streaming. My first feature, Falling for You, ended up on Amazon, Tubi, Relay and YouTube.
Many people who might have paid to see a comedy in theaters began to think:
“I’ll just wait until it shows up on streaming.”
Comedy often feels less dependent on a giant screen than a Stars Wars, Top Gun: Maverick, or an Avatar movie. Because they’re spectacles, they benefit from the big screen.
Even from my perspective, if I went out on a date with my wife, we’d have to think about whether we’re going to a restaurant then the cinema. Are we going to get concessions, or skip it? Then does the parking cost money? Then the cost of the babysitter. And obviously the tickets and the cost of petrol (gas). Do we really need to see a film like No Hard Feelings at the cinema, or could we wait?
And even with Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar-winning star power it made $87.3 million against a $45 million budget. Obviously, in a normal business that’s huge, but those numbers aren’t a patch on the numbers R-rated movies from the 2000s and 2010s used to do.
I have to say, for myself, relying on a theatrical release as an indie filmmaker, with a romantic comedy feature film with local Chicago-based talent, relying on a theatrical release without a big distributor or producer behind me would’ve killed my chances of release. Perhaps a DVD would’ve worked, we even considered it… back in 2013. But we pivoted away from that due to the decline in people watching them.
The film festivals that allowed Tarantino, Rodriguez, Smith, and even The Duplass Brothers to break through, have leaned more and more towards accepting films with named talent than with complete unknowns. Even looking as Reservoir Dogs, Harvey Keitel was already famous. He was in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ to name three. It seems as though festivals skew more that way than they once did. Again, it’s just economics.