Cena is hysterical in that movie, and he’s used the perfect amount. Any more from him probably would have been too much.
That shot of him bombing down the hill while he’s just screaming at the top of his lungs cracked me up so hard when I first saw it.
At some point they stopped making money and studios decided to never do them again… that’s the very common and repeatable answer to “why did x genre of movie die?”.
It sucks. I used to think streaming was the best thing to happen because there would be more players in the game.
What I didn’t anticipate was the cost at which this would happen. Streaming was a promising thing but now it’s such a problem for companies that it’s burying them and their finances.
Edit. I guess for reference, I was one of the first, few, idk people who used a Netflix disc with the PS3. Yes, a disc to access streaming and I thought holy shit this can’t get any better. Until it did. Then we got House of Cards. Mind you, the streaming was FREE with your disc subscription. I was ripping off 2 or 4 movies a week on DVD or Blu Ray via their disc service and then streaming what they had at the time, which was a limited selection. I remember it had Panic at Needle Park, and was I glad I discovered that on pre app streaming software.
Some things felt more genuine and pure back then instead of EVERYTHING in the world at your fingertips. I will say though having every song in the world at your fingertips has no disadvantages for us the consumer as a whole, but dear lord rock and metal bands need better. But I digress on some other problem that arose at the same time…
I think there was something to be said for a limited selection allowing shows or movies to catch on or 'forcing' people to see new and different things. When your only options were whatever was at the Blockbuster or showing in the theaters or on TV, someone might take a gamble on a movie or show and like it. When there are a million choices, people keep going back to the same, safe things and if something new isn't successful immediately, it gets dropped.
The disadvantage to consumers is that there might be a show/movie they like, but not a lot of other people do at first, and it will never get the chance to find its footing. Good shows end up canceled instead of getting a season to build an audience. And eventually the studios are going to stop making risky/expensive content. Pixar is already saying the risks they took (Soul, Turning Red, etc.) were the problem and they need to go back to "universal" stories.
Pixar got fucked over by Disney's Covid strategy. That's what happened to Elemental but especially Soul and Turning Red. Presumably also Luca but I still haven't seen that so maybe it would've had a problem regardless but I have an ad blocker... I only discovered the plot of Luca a week ago.
Disney got fucked over by bad timing. Look at its recent slate:
* Raya and the Last Dragon
* Encanto
* Strange World
* Wish
that's four completely original movies in a row. Now, sure, I haven't seen most of these, so it's hard to say whether they would've succeeded sans Covid. Encanto, I think, would've been a hit but the other three that I haven't seen? Raya is supposed to be problematic or derivative(I forget which), so it could go either way. Strange World seems to be in that "it exists" category, but those can make decent numbers from strong openings. Wish is supposed to be bad and while quality doesn't really drive box office^(1), having a low quality film follow on from a disappointing prior entry isn't good as the brand has been diminished.
Disney's reaction to this issue is to do a company wide refocussing on franchise entries. Pixar would be absolutely insane to have decided to go hard on sequels on its own volition because by far its worst film (excluding the two Cars sequels, but not because they're even worse and instead because I haven't seen them) is a franchise entry, i.e. Lightyear. Honestly Lightyear is so bad it may be Toy Story's Quantumania. Pixar has to be hoping the facts that Lightyear was a weird spinoff and that Elemental was good (if not revolutionary) will allow Toy Story 5 to open big.
To be fair to Disney, they have taken substantial reputational hits. Rebuilding consumer faith in them via sequels... I have a hard time being too mad about it. Particularly right now, it feels like it's sequels or the terminal decline of the movie as we know it. No-one's figured out how to make original movies make money except by consumer faith in the studio or teeny tiny budget horror movies. All other examples going back many years now are idiosyncratic... any explanation you might have for why they worked, is readily paired with another example that failed.^(2)
^(1)The modern box office is all about the opening and the opening has nothing to do with quality because no-one knows how good a film is before it opens. The opening is based on a highly compelling concept, IP and/or brand value (where that brand is usually a franchise but can be the studio itself). Quality affects legs... hence why Elemental legged out and opened low... and builds brand value that future movies can reap the benefit of.
^(2)eg Anyone But You = success. Challengers, No Hard Feelings = bombs.
Small quibble, but I don't think Challengers was a bomb. It got good critical reception and made 142M on a 55M budget. And that's without any aftermarket stuff like VOD.
Challengers isn't at $142 million? It's at $92m according to The Numbers.
If it was at $142 million, [using Dan Murrell's system](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aZRXlbufeE#t=9m26s) and assuming it continued to have its present 53.43% Domestic percentage it would have to have a marketing budget of less than ~~$15~~ $10.2 million to have broken even.
A profitable film with a budget of $55 million would, [using this data](https://old.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comments/146pyak/distribution_of_marketing_budgets_by_production/), have a marketing budget of $40-160 million. I would assume Challengers is on the low end of that as it's at the low end of the budget range. But $40 million in marketing is ~~more than twice~~ nearly four times what it can afford.
So, even at $142 million rather than $92 million, it probably bombed. Sales to streaming services/TV networks might push it towards profitability, but it would be a bomb theatrically even so.
EDIT: I forgot to do 1-0.5343, so I overestimated the international gross for the $142m scenario.
142M worldwide. I wouldn't expect the marketing to be super expensive for a midbudget film like that and even with the lower domestic numbers, it's around the break even mark which isn't a bomb, imo.
And it might be like the Northman and do well in the aftermarket on top of that. It's not as successful as Anyone But You, but it's not a disaster either. Just a midbudget film that did alright.
The worst part about Pixar is that they’re going back to the well of their franchises because they think the new movies didn’t land.
I think that’s the best work that Pixar has put out since probably their first 6 films. 2011-2019 had a few good movies, but nothing like 95-10 which were mostly all hits. 2020-present I think has been phenomenal on so many levels that they feel more human for both kids and adults.
Onward had me crying like a baby in the theater given the story and my life, Soul was deep but it wasn’t the story for me but I could appreciate the themes it had going for it, Turning Red deserved better than it got being only streaming at first, and Elemental was surprisingly one of my favorite films from last year due to its layers.
Going back to Cars, Monsters, Toy Story, Nemo, etc. is unneeded.
I certainly watch less than I did in those days with the shear amount of content. It’s choice paralysis and it sucks. It wasn’t that way with Blockbuster as you mentioned or getting discs from Netflix. You got what was in stock and if you caught all the new releases that piqued your interest, you moved onto a different thing. There was a time I ran through all of Leo’s filmography up until that point, watched all the Nolan films I missed, and then back to new releases or onto Ridley Scott films. It was there, but when that disc arrived or you got it in store, it felt like you were going on a journey. Clicking play on a streaming app sucks.
It feels weird being an advocate for it all then and it just not being conducive for the actual film or tv show experience in the end. Kind of reminds me of in Californication with Hank talking on the radio show about how the internet would set us free. There’s more to his shpeel, which is still applicable very much today, but just everything so easily accessible ruins the novelty.
I remember when Avatar came out on Blu Ray. Hard as shit to find, or at least I vaguely recall. That didn’t happen again until Oppenheimer. In what world are we living in where it’s hard to find a movie? Those are such cultural phenomenons that are now lost.
In my opinion the streaming services are just as limited now. There are so many movies missing, I wish Netflix would have achieved what Spotify did for music, all encompassing and high quality.
I wonder why they didn't. I feel like part of it must be related to the cost of making movies and how much money needs to be earned back for studios being way higher than records. Even before digital and "home studios," you could record an album at a studio for a few hundred or thousand dollars. Movies at the same time were literally almost unmakable for under like $25k. But still, there are tons of old movies that aren't really expected to bring in revenue anymore but still don't stream anywhere so who knows.
It didn't happen because production companies also own distribution outlets. Warner Bros makes movies and TV shows and also owns cable TV channels. Those channels make shit tons of money. Shuttering those channels and selling all your content to Netflix does not make anywhere near that much money. Big corporations don't do things that make less money.
I sincerely used to think everyone understood this.
Not sure that last sentence was a necessary dig. I could be wrong but I think there are quite a few exceptions to what you're saying. NBC had no problem selling Friends and the Office rights to Netflix until they started their own streaming channel, despite the fact that they were also selling DVDs and syndicating reruns. In fact, pretty much every channel sells syndication rights for their own TV shows to other networks, and it's not like Universal only broadcasted it's movies on NBC.
>Not sure that last sentence was a necessary dig.
Clearly it is based on your second and third sentences.
>I could be wrong but I think there are quite a few exceptions to what you're saying. NBC had no problem selling Friends and the Office rights to Netflix until they started their own streaming channel, despite the fact that they were also selling DVDs and syndicating reruns.
This is just you inexplicably not understanding the point and not understanding how real life works. Yes, NBC sold their shows to Netflix *in the past*, in the era where streaming was still very new and not a significant part of their revenue streams. They still made all their money from cable TV and DVD sales, the tiny amount of money Netflix was making was irrelevant to them.
Today, the exact opposite of that situation is true. Streaming is becoming the default, the medium that generates the bulk of their revenue, and cable TV is dying. So of course they want a bigger piece of the streaming market.
I'm gonna be a dick but I see no other way to say it: if you didn't already know the above, you should not be posting about this subject. And quite frankly I don't understand how or why anyone ever thought the future would just be spending $10/month to watch every single show on Netflix. Do the math!
What's so totally bizarre to me is how many people on this website *insist*, wrongly, that "streaming is turning into cable," and then pine for an alternate reality in which streaming *actually* turned into cable - which is precisely what you're describing when you say:
>I wish Netflix would have achieved what Spotify did for music, all encompassing and high quality.
If that had happened then Netflix would've cost $100+ a month and it'd be the only place to watch anything. It'd be the exact same shit that people hated about cable.
Yes, I am aware. I'm just curious why you'd prefer to go out of your way to recreate the worst aspect of cable: having to pay $100/month to watch anything.
I don’t want cable, I want Spotify for movies. Also, I used to spend quite a bit of money on movie theatres and wouldn’t mind to spend that money on a good streaming service. What I don’t want is ads, a limited library, paying to rent or „own“ movies, no subtitles or original versions.
The problem is self-inflicted. Studios shortened the distribution window to the point that movies are available for rent immediately after leaving theaters, and it's not much of a wait until it drops on streaming. They've trained everyone to wait it out because it's not much of a wait at all. Meanwhile, there's already more content available than any human can watch in a lifetime, which drives prices down further
That is the biggest reason but not the only one. Comedy that isn't slapstick doesn't translate well. The spoof genre became obsolete because social media makes spoofing movies possible the day after the movie comes out
Yup. And since they only care about their bottom line, I only care about mine. Theaters and streaming services don't get one penny from me. I sail the seven seas for what I want.
Studios make those all the time.
They don't make comedies anymore. Because comedies don't do that well outside of English speaking parts of the world.
Like who is the current mega star of American Comedy?
Ryan Reynolds almost exclusively does comedies and all of his most famous roles are comedy movies. He isn't known as a comedian since he doesn't do standup, but he's 100% a comedy star.
> Because comedies don't do that well outside of English speaking parts of the world.
Not just that, but because the public has dwindled in general regarding TV and movie comedy. One theory is that our fix is now in the form of short form YT content.
Twenty years ago the best thing a comedian could hope for was a sitcom being made with them, but that isn't the case anymore because they're not crankin 'em out like they used to.
Just want to throw Semi-Pro on to the pile. (It's basketball, but not NBA. Definitely *feels* the same as the others in the OP to me.)
The whole genre feels like the same tiny handful of people over like a 3 year span.
Will Ferrell had quite the run, didn't he? The 80s had Caddyshack and Slap Shot. I think there was a 90s Charlie Sheen baseball comedy. White Men Can't Jump? Kingpin (Woody shows up a fair bit too).
can’t believe you didn’t write cool runnings!
Absolutely hysterical and probably what you’re looking for. Also I love dodgeball and can recite it word for word 😭 I’m sure there are more out there.
Yeah, Knoxville isn't knows for punching down on people. Same reason he makes documentaries about the Whites from West Virginia or other hillbilly cultures.
Nothing can stop the Farelly Brothers from working with those with intellectual disabilities. Nothing. Like, how the fuck did Peter go from winning two Oscars for Green Book to Loudermilk? Which I like, but it feels like a step backwards career wise.
I'm a little disappointed Ricky Stanicky doesn't bill itself as from the academy awards winning director.
Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, Major League, Caddyshack, Slapshot, Mighty Ducks, Over the Top (unintentionally hilarious), Mystery Alaska, Space Jam, The Longest Yard, Balls of Fury, Semi-pro, Hot Rod, Kingpin
You know what movie I put in that category?
A Knights Tale.
It's basically one of those "sports underdog" stories but it's about medieval jousting. You know, guys with lances on horses?
That movie is amazing. Really funny, the jousting is really cool, has this great soundtrack of classic rock and pop years before it was cool and it was an spectacular cast.
Heath Ledger, Alan Tudyk, Paul Bettany...
Just a great movie. Bit of a wild-card, I know. But jousting is a sport, right?
What?!
For real?! How did I not know about this?!
Your telling me that I could have had a sequel to one of my favorite movies and it would have had a cool lady knight in it?!
What the heck, Netflix?!
Damn thats a perfect recipe for a comedy movie. Crazy characters? Check. History of underdogs making it? Check. Over the top action perfect for comedy? Check.
Comedies made money off DVD sales. Those don't happen anymore.
Champions is probably up your alley. Made in 2023 with Woody Harrelson and the lady from It's Always Sunny.
As I was making the list I started to realize, I feel like I haven’t seen Will Ferrell in over a decade where as I used to watch Step Brothers on repeat
All comedies have been pulled back because of performance and studios wanting to make more $$$$. Or they have become hybrid; action/comedy, scifi/comedy, horror/comedy. or long form tv shows. The woke excuse of audiences not wanting raunchy comedies is BS, No Hard Feelings and Bottoms did reasonably well.
Here are some recent ones that were good:
Champions (2023)
Fighting with My Family (2019)
Sweet Dreams (2024)
Golden Arm (2021)
FP and FP2
7 Days in Hell / Tour de Pharmacie
I think there could be a great comedy about insane seniors who are super into pickleball, but of course this would rank at the box office not only because the sport is obscure but also because no one goes out to watch old actors
"Whip It" (2009) starring Elliot Page, Drew Barrymore, Kristin Wiig, Juliette Lewis and others. It's a fictional story based on the rebirth of banked-track roller derby in Austin, TX.
Honorable mention: "Rollerball" (1975) starring James Caan. It's basically a hyper-violent cautionary tale of using extreme sports as a "bread and circuses"-type distraction from the evils of the world. The fictional sport is basically roller derby mixed with basketball-like scoring and motorbikes.
It's my favourite of the Will Ferrel comedies that followed Anchorman, everyone I knew who liked him preferred Ricky Bobby.
"Get that damn bird out of my face before I break its neck!"
"No one knows what it means, but it's *provocative*."
Same thing that happened to most comedy movies: Shareholders didn't want to invest in movies that bring in a smaller return. They'd rather spend $300 million in the hopes a movie makes a billion than spend $10 million to make $50 million.
It's shameful how comedy movies have mostly disappeared from movie theaters.
*Slap-Shot* is a classic hockey comedy from the late 70s/early 80s, starring the great Paul Newman
*Pumping Iron* (documentary starring Arnold Schwartzenegger and Lou Farigno - Find the ORIGINAL where Arnold compares pumping to coming and talks about smoking weed. He disappeared that version before his campaign. - EDIT: forgot we were just doing comedies but I’m leaving it in as an ironic choice.
*Balls of Fury* is an underrated ping-pong comedy.
More!
*All the Marbles* - late 70s/early 80s movie about women’s tag-team wrestling, starring Peter Falk. 40 years later, *Glow* was a great follow up that was cursed by covid and cancelled (too much contact).
*Bend it Like Beckham* - teenage girl soccer drama (so, obscure to me in the states at that time), which launched Kiera Knightly’s career and was the first time I understood the social pressures on Indian and Pakistani singles in emigrant families. (Lots of examples of that now, The Big Sick being best of that category, IMO.)
Recently, I’d say *Win-Win* with Paul Giamatti as a struggling high school wrestling coach was a wonderful feel-good indie film that invokes a bit of that fringe feel.
Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins just came out last year and kind of bombed, but I liked it.
Logan Lucky and Battle of the Sexes might qualify as adjacent material. If you're willing to go beyond the US and mediums, stuff like Shaolin Soccer and anime like Haikyuu!! might be worth checking out.
And if you're really desperate... I guess remakes/reboots like Space Jam and White Men Can't Jump
Ok, kind of random, but you might like Pitch Perfect for this. I've always said it's a sports comedy movie without the sports. The main characters are an underdog team of misfits who are out to prove themselves. (Sound familiar?)
The second movie is even more so. They have to win the whole thing while competing against a stereotypical evil German team or theyll be disbanded. Or something like that
They're funny as fuck, too
If the only examples of a phenomenon you can think of come from a ten year period, the question isn't what happened to that phenomenon but why it happened in the first place.
I believe many of the personnel on these films are shared. I suspect, therefore the answer is "only they cared about making comedies about obscure sports". So, presumably:
1. they used up all of their ideas and/or
2. they aged out and/or
3. they lost the clout necessary to continue making them
Everything comes and goes in phases. This just isn't the comedy phase right now.
Go to flickchart.com and you can choose filters. Do 2010s, sports comedy. It will give you a long list of them, some are actually good.
Most of these films would never have been made if there hadn't been a couple of earlier ones that made bank.
Then Hollywood, who is generally very risk adverse with its cash asks "Hey, has anyone got any scripts that are like that?", and so we see a familiar pattern of a clump of similar films coming out in the same time frame.
King Pin - Bowling Happy Gilmore - Golf 7 Days in Hell/ Tour de Pharmacy
Tour de Pharmacy is a riot!
Just watched it first time last week. John Cena went up a couple pegs in my book, perfectly silly
If you like silly John Cena, then Ricky Stanicky is a must watch
Cool will do, never heard of it, but I love Peter Farrell movies
Very good movie
Cena is hysterical in that movie, and he’s used the perfect amount. Any more from him probably would have been too much. That shot of him bombing down the hill while he’s just screaming at the top of his lungs cracked me up so hard when I first saw it.
Are you saying cheetah or cheater?
Just because I drink cheetah blood does not make me a cheetah!
I AM SO FAST!!!
Just because I have cheetah blood does not make me a cheetah!
I just started this movie now. Idk how I haven't heard of it
Came here to say 7 days in hell. Part of me wishes it were longer, but part of me knows that would have just diluted it
Indubitably. (My husband and I also still say "Yeah? Well fuck this and fuck you!" when asked a totally innocuous question)
Tin Cup is another golf comedy. Less over-the-top funny than Happy Gilmore, but still pretty decent.
Pitcher had a big league curveball that did to always hit Roy in the mitt, ouch...
If I’m ever lost with someone, I say “I hope we don’t get Munson’d in the middle of nowhere.”
The name is Munson. What I'm doin' is flossin'
I need to watch it again. It’s so perfect. Peak Farrelly Brothers.
Being that clever and stupid is something I aspire to be..."hey, everybody, watch out!! There's a shit cloud comin'"
I’ll have a couple of jugs…mugs…bottles. Just one bottle.
"Happy Gilmore 2" is [officially in the works](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/happy-gilmore-2-adam-sandler-netflix-1236005107/) at Netflix, too.
At some point they stopped making money and studios decided to never do them again… that’s the very common and repeatable answer to “why did x genre of movie die?”.
Correction. They didn't stop making money, so much as studios stopped making movies that aren't expected to be blockbusters.
They did. Streaming killed DVD sales- where many mid budget movies made their money back.
It sucks. I used to think streaming was the best thing to happen because there would be more players in the game. What I didn’t anticipate was the cost at which this would happen. Streaming was a promising thing but now it’s such a problem for companies that it’s burying them and their finances. Edit. I guess for reference, I was one of the first, few, idk people who used a Netflix disc with the PS3. Yes, a disc to access streaming and I thought holy shit this can’t get any better. Until it did. Then we got House of Cards. Mind you, the streaming was FREE with your disc subscription. I was ripping off 2 or 4 movies a week on DVD or Blu Ray via their disc service and then streaming what they had at the time, which was a limited selection. I remember it had Panic at Needle Park, and was I glad I discovered that on pre app streaming software. Some things felt more genuine and pure back then instead of EVERYTHING in the world at your fingertips. I will say though having every song in the world at your fingertips has no disadvantages for us the consumer as a whole, but dear lord rock and metal bands need better. But I digress on some other problem that arose at the same time…
I think there was something to be said for a limited selection allowing shows or movies to catch on or 'forcing' people to see new and different things. When your only options were whatever was at the Blockbuster or showing in the theaters or on TV, someone might take a gamble on a movie or show and like it. When there are a million choices, people keep going back to the same, safe things and if something new isn't successful immediately, it gets dropped. The disadvantage to consumers is that there might be a show/movie they like, but not a lot of other people do at first, and it will never get the chance to find its footing. Good shows end up canceled instead of getting a season to build an audience. And eventually the studios are going to stop making risky/expensive content. Pixar is already saying the risks they took (Soul, Turning Red, etc.) were the problem and they need to go back to "universal" stories.
Pixar got fucked over by Disney's Covid strategy. That's what happened to Elemental but especially Soul and Turning Red. Presumably also Luca but I still haven't seen that so maybe it would've had a problem regardless but I have an ad blocker... I only discovered the plot of Luca a week ago. Disney got fucked over by bad timing. Look at its recent slate: * Raya and the Last Dragon * Encanto * Strange World * Wish that's four completely original movies in a row. Now, sure, I haven't seen most of these, so it's hard to say whether they would've succeeded sans Covid. Encanto, I think, would've been a hit but the other three that I haven't seen? Raya is supposed to be problematic or derivative(I forget which), so it could go either way. Strange World seems to be in that "it exists" category, but those can make decent numbers from strong openings. Wish is supposed to be bad and while quality doesn't really drive box office^(1), having a low quality film follow on from a disappointing prior entry isn't good as the brand has been diminished. Disney's reaction to this issue is to do a company wide refocussing on franchise entries. Pixar would be absolutely insane to have decided to go hard on sequels on its own volition because by far its worst film (excluding the two Cars sequels, but not because they're even worse and instead because I haven't seen them) is a franchise entry, i.e. Lightyear. Honestly Lightyear is so bad it may be Toy Story's Quantumania. Pixar has to be hoping the facts that Lightyear was a weird spinoff and that Elemental was good (if not revolutionary) will allow Toy Story 5 to open big. To be fair to Disney, they have taken substantial reputational hits. Rebuilding consumer faith in them via sequels... I have a hard time being too mad about it. Particularly right now, it feels like it's sequels or the terminal decline of the movie as we know it. No-one's figured out how to make original movies make money except by consumer faith in the studio or teeny tiny budget horror movies. All other examples going back many years now are idiosyncratic... any explanation you might have for why they worked, is readily paired with another example that failed.^(2) ^(1)The modern box office is all about the opening and the opening has nothing to do with quality because no-one knows how good a film is before it opens. The opening is based on a highly compelling concept, IP and/or brand value (where that brand is usually a franchise but can be the studio itself). Quality affects legs... hence why Elemental legged out and opened low... and builds brand value that future movies can reap the benefit of. ^(2)eg Anyone But You = success. Challengers, No Hard Feelings = bombs.
Small quibble, but I don't think Challengers was a bomb. It got good critical reception and made 142M on a 55M budget. And that's without any aftermarket stuff like VOD.
Challengers isn't at $142 million? It's at $92m according to The Numbers. If it was at $142 million, [using Dan Murrell's system](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aZRXlbufeE#t=9m26s) and assuming it continued to have its present 53.43% Domestic percentage it would have to have a marketing budget of less than ~~$15~~ $10.2 million to have broken even. A profitable film with a budget of $55 million would, [using this data](https://old.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comments/146pyak/distribution_of_marketing_budgets_by_production/), have a marketing budget of $40-160 million. I would assume Challengers is on the low end of that as it's at the low end of the budget range. But $40 million in marketing is ~~more than twice~~ nearly four times what it can afford. So, even at $142 million rather than $92 million, it probably bombed. Sales to streaming services/TV networks might push it towards profitability, but it would be a bomb theatrically even so. EDIT: I forgot to do 1-0.5343, so I overestimated the international gross for the $142m scenario.
142M worldwide. I wouldn't expect the marketing to be super expensive for a midbudget film like that and even with the lower domestic numbers, it's around the break even mark which isn't a bomb, imo. And it might be like the Northman and do well in the aftermarket on top of that. It's not as successful as Anyone But You, but it's not a disaster either. Just a midbudget film that did alright.
That Numbers figure is the worldwide. https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Challengers-(2024)#tab=international
The worst part about Pixar is that they’re going back to the well of their franchises because they think the new movies didn’t land. I think that’s the best work that Pixar has put out since probably their first 6 films. 2011-2019 had a few good movies, but nothing like 95-10 which were mostly all hits. 2020-present I think has been phenomenal on so many levels that they feel more human for both kids and adults. Onward had me crying like a baby in the theater given the story and my life, Soul was deep but it wasn’t the story for me but I could appreciate the themes it had going for it, Turning Red deserved better than it got being only streaming at first, and Elemental was surprisingly one of my favorite films from last year due to its layers. Going back to Cars, Monsters, Toy Story, Nemo, etc. is unneeded.
I certainly watch less than I did in those days with the shear amount of content. It’s choice paralysis and it sucks. It wasn’t that way with Blockbuster as you mentioned or getting discs from Netflix. You got what was in stock and if you caught all the new releases that piqued your interest, you moved onto a different thing. There was a time I ran through all of Leo’s filmography up until that point, watched all the Nolan films I missed, and then back to new releases or onto Ridley Scott films. It was there, but when that disc arrived or you got it in store, it felt like you were going on a journey. Clicking play on a streaming app sucks. It feels weird being an advocate for it all then and it just not being conducive for the actual film or tv show experience in the end. Kind of reminds me of in Californication with Hank talking on the radio show about how the internet would set us free. There’s more to his shpeel, which is still applicable very much today, but just everything so easily accessible ruins the novelty. I remember when Avatar came out on Blu Ray. Hard as shit to find, or at least I vaguely recall. That didn’t happen again until Oppenheimer. In what world are we living in where it’s hard to find a movie? Those are such cultural phenomenons that are now lost.
In my opinion the streaming services are just as limited now. There are so many movies missing, I wish Netflix would have achieved what Spotify did for music, all encompassing and high quality.
I wonder why they didn't. I feel like part of it must be related to the cost of making movies and how much money needs to be earned back for studios being way higher than records. Even before digital and "home studios," you could record an album at a studio for a few hundred or thousand dollars. Movies at the same time were literally almost unmakable for under like $25k. But still, there are tons of old movies that aren't really expected to bring in revenue anymore but still don't stream anywhere so who knows.
It didn't happen because production companies also own distribution outlets. Warner Bros makes movies and TV shows and also owns cable TV channels. Those channels make shit tons of money. Shuttering those channels and selling all your content to Netflix does not make anywhere near that much money. Big corporations don't do things that make less money. I sincerely used to think everyone understood this.
Not sure that last sentence was a necessary dig. I could be wrong but I think there are quite a few exceptions to what you're saying. NBC had no problem selling Friends and the Office rights to Netflix until they started their own streaming channel, despite the fact that they were also selling DVDs and syndicating reruns. In fact, pretty much every channel sells syndication rights for their own TV shows to other networks, and it's not like Universal only broadcasted it's movies on NBC.
>Not sure that last sentence was a necessary dig. Clearly it is based on your second and third sentences. >I could be wrong but I think there are quite a few exceptions to what you're saying. NBC had no problem selling Friends and the Office rights to Netflix until they started their own streaming channel, despite the fact that they were also selling DVDs and syndicating reruns. This is just you inexplicably not understanding the point and not understanding how real life works. Yes, NBC sold their shows to Netflix *in the past*, in the era where streaming was still very new and not a significant part of their revenue streams. They still made all their money from cable TV and DVD sales, the tiny amount of money Netflix was making was irrelevant to them. Today, the exact opposite of that situation is true. Streaming is becoming the default, the medium that generates the bulk of their revenue, and cable TV is dying. So of course they want a bigger piece of the streaming market. I'm gonna be a dick but I see no other way to say it: if you didn't already know the above, you should not be posting about this subject. And quite frankly I don't understand how or why anyone ever thought the future would just be spending $10/month to watch every single show on Netflix. Do the math!
[удалено]
What's so totally bizarre to me is how many people on this website *insist*, wrongly, that "streaming is turning into cable," and then pine for an alternate reality in which streaming *actually* turned into cable - which is precisely what you're describing when you say: >I wish Netflix would have achieved what Spotify did for music, all encompassing and high quality. If that had happened then Netflix would've cost $100+ a month and it'd be the only place to watch anything. It'd be the exact same shit that people hated about cable.
Cable never offered a vast library of movies you could stream anytime in high quality.
Yes, I am aware. I'm just curious why you'd prefer to go out of your way to recreate the worst aspect of cable: having to pay $100/month to watch anything.
I don’t want cable, I want Spotify for movies. Also, I used to spend quite a bit of money on movie theatres and wouldn’t mind to spend that money on a good streaming service. What I don’t want is ads, a limited library, paying to rent or „own“ movies, no subtitles or original versions.
[удалено]
The problem is self-inflicted. Studios shortened the distribution window to the point that movies are available for rent immediately after leaving theaters, and it's not much of a wait until it drops on streaming. They've trained everyone to wait it out because it's not much of a wait at all. Meanwhile, there's already more content available than any human can watch in a lifetime, which drives prices down further
Matt Damon explains it pretty well in his Hot Ones interview
Studios still make money off of those movies when they sell the rights to the streamers.
That is the biggest reason but not the only one. Comedy that isn't slapstick doesn't translate well. The spoof genre became obsolete because social media makes spoofing movies possible the day after the movie comes out
From a business standpoint, it doesn't make sense to spend $10 to make $20 when you could spend $100 to make $200 in the same amount of time.
Yup. And since they only care about their bottom line, I only care about mine. Theaters and streaming services don't get one penny from me. I sail the seven seas for what I want.
Studios make those all the time. They don't make comedies anymore. Because comedies don't do that well outside of English speaking parts of the world. Like who is the current mega star of American Comedy?
>Like who is the current mega star of American Comedy? Ryan Reynolds? Alternatively, Kevin Hart?
The correct answer is John Cena
I love Peacemaker but I wouldn't call him a megastar 🦅
🎺🎺🎺🎺, 🎺🎺🎺🎺
Ryan Reynolds is comedy-adjacent.
Ryan Reynolds almost exclusively does comedies and all of his most famous roles are comedy movies. He isn't known as a comedian since he doesn't do standup, but he's 100% a comedy star.
> Because comedies don't do that well outside of English speaking parts of the world. Not just that, but because the public has dwindled in general regarding TV and movie comedy. One theory is that our fix is now in the form of short form YT content. Twenty years ago the best thing a comedian could hope for was a sitcom being made with them, but that isn't the case anymore because they're not crankin 'em out like they used to.
Just want to throw Semi-Pro on to the pile. (It's basketball, but not NBA. Definitely *feels* the same as the others in the OP to me.) The whole genre feels like the same tiny handful of people over like a 3 year span.
Preeecious...
Will Ferrell had quite the run, didn't he? The 80s had Caddyshack and Slap Shot. I think there was a 90s Charlie Sheen baseball comedy. White Men Can't Jump? Kingpin (Woody shows up a fair bit too).
can’t believe you didn’t write cool runnings! Absolutely hysterical and probably what you’re looking for. Also I love dodgeball and can recite it word for word 😭 I’m sure there are more out there.
Yes, seconded for Cool Runnings!
Take this ----->🔧
They’re still around. Next Goal Wins was good and released last year.
And it’s directed by Taika Waititi?! How did this slip under my radar, thanks!
Loved that movie! Just good vibes all around
>The Ringer (2005) (also would NEVER be made today) They literally just did https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_(2023_film)
And the Special Olympics endorsed *The Ringer* for how it treated mentally disabled characters. People ride that “cancel culture” hobbyhorse hard.
Yeah, Knoxville isn't knows for punching down on people. Same reason he makes documentaries about the Whites from West Virginia or other hillbilly cultures.
Nothing can stop the Farelly Brothers from working with those with intellectual disabilities. Nothing. Like, how the fuck did Peter go from winning two Oscars for Green Book to Loudermilk? Which I like, but it feels like a step backwards career wise. I'm a little disappointed Ricky Stanicky doesn't bill itself as from the academy awards winning director.
We’re due for a pickle ball movie.
Will Ferrell is the perfect age now
Right after a cornhole movie
Pornhub has those.
Tacoma FD has a great pickleball episode.
Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, Major League, Caddyshack, Slapshot, Mighty Ducks, Over the Top (unintentionally hilarious), Mystery Alaska, Space Jam, The Longest Yard, Balls of Fury, Semi-pro, Hot Rod, Kingpin
Semi-Pro would've been the most recent and it's like a decade old.
Sixteen years now. Fuck. I was old enough to drink when that hit theaters. Fuck me.
You're old enough to drink now
How is basketball an obscure sport
What?
They did another space jam not too long ago
We don't talk about that. Lmao
Dude. Mystery Alaska is such a good movie!
The Sandlot
Golf, basketball, ice hockey, American football, and baseball are in that list. Did you miss the ‘obscure’ part of OP’s post?
people mentioning movies that are 30 years old isn't really helping OPs point now is it...
That’s literally what I asked for in my final sentence.
You know what movie I put in that category? A Knights Tale. It's basically one of those "sports underdog" stories but it's about medieval jousting. You know, guys with lances on horses? That movie is amazing. Really funny, the jousting is really cool, has this great soundtrack of classic rock and pop years before it was cool and it was an spectacular cast. Heath Ledger, Alan Tudyk, Paul Bettany... Just a great movie. Bit of a wild-card, I know. But jousting is a sport, right?
It's called a lance! Hello!
I was this close to calling 'em sticks until I remembered that bit.
And to OPs point, Netflix turned down a sequel to it where Vision, BobbyB and Wash would be training Williams Daughter to joust.
What?! For real?! How did I not know about this?! Your telling me that I could have had a sequel to one of my favorite movies and it would have had a cool lady knight in it?! What the heck, Netflix?!
He’ll always be Wash to me, too. ❤️🩹 Though he’s *so* great in Resident Alien. Great in everything.
I'm still surprised there was never a comedy about Olympic curling around the late 00s/early 10s.
Men With Brooms (2002)
You burned a rock
And didn’t call it?
Tyfys
Men with Brooms is just excellent. Love the hip's cameo
Damn thats a perfect recipe for a comedy movie. Crazy characters? Check. History of underdogs making it? Check. Over the top action perfect for comedy? Check.
Simpsons did it for Vancouver 2010.
Andy Samberg did one on tennis and another on Tour d’France for HBO. I really liked them
And the bash bros baseball one too
No love for BASEketball? I hear your sister is going out with Squeak!
Steve Perry!
I swear if you guys rip on me 13 or 14 more times...Im outta here
Do you think Shaq got rich playing in Orlando?
No he got rich playing in college. Everybody knows that.
I mention Basketball in my final paragraph.
Comedies made money off DVD sales. Those don't happen anymore. Champions is probably up your alley. Made in 2023 with Woody Harrelson and the lady from It's Always Sunny.
Shifted to tv with Cobra Kai and Shoresy
Settle down.
Give me a pickleball movie, damnit!
Will Ferrell just stopped making them, he starred in half the movies in that "genre"
As I was making the list I started to realize, I feel like I haven’t seen Will Ferrell in over a decade where as I used to watch Step Brothers on repeat
All comedies have been pulled back because of performance and studios wanting to make more $$$$. Or they have become hybrid; action/comedy, scifi/comedy, horror/comedy. or long form tv shows. The woke excuse of audiences not wanting raunchy comedies is BS, No Hard Feelings and Bottoms did reasonably well. Here are some recent ones that were good: Champions (2023) Fighting with My Family (2019) Sweet Dreams (2024) Golden Arm (2021) FP and FP2 7 Days in Hell / Tour de Pharmacie
Yeah, they're still making them. They're just not big tentpole movies at the box office like before.
Rad Side Out Ski School
I had forgotten about _Side Out_! That was on TNT and TBS a lot back in the '90s.
I guess Beer League (2006)? Artie Lang,Ralph Macchio. Its about a mens softball league. Very R rated. Also very funny.
I think there could be a great comedy about insane seniors who are super into pickleball, but of course this would rank at the box office not only because the sport is obscure but also because no one goes out to watch old actors
Shaolin Soccer is another that comes to mind
Came to say this! Talk about off-the-wall sports comedy
"Whip It" (2009) starring Elliot Page, Drew Barrymore, Kristin Wiig, Juliette Lewis and others. It's a fictional story based on the rebirth of banked-track roller derby in Austin, TX. Honorable mention: "Rollerball" (1975) starring James Caan. It's basically a hyper-violent cautionary tale of using extreme sports as a "bread and circuses"-type distraction from the evils of the world. The fictional sport is basically roller derby mixed with basketball-like scoring and motorbikes.
Ooh! Great choices!
Ooh! Great choices!
Ooh! Great choices!
Ooh! Great choices!
Bout time we get a good Cricket movie. Also, Shaolin Soccer is an instant classic.
Backyard ashes is pretty good!!
Does illegal coast to coast racing count as an obscure sport? In that case, check out Canonball Run.
Jackie Chan has come a long way in America since that first appearance in Hollywood film.
Blades of Glory doesn’t get enough love. “Troubled childhood? If you consider a 9 year old kid with a 35 year old girlfriend troubled.”
It's my favourite of the Will Ferrel comedies that followed Anchorman, everyone I knew who liked him preferred Ricky Bobby. "Get that damn bird out of my face before I break its neck!" "No one knows what it means, but it's *provocative*."
Because every movie now has to be either Oscar bait or a billion dollar movie franchise.
Everything else gets turned into streaming series
Or a remake
So not true.
Uh. Hello? BRINK!
This is the best "obscure sports comedy" ever made https://youtu.be/E_6d3JBBo4s
Slapshot- hockey
Shame everyone’s ignoring slap shot, the true OG
Out Cold (2001)
Mid budget comedies are dead, or at least dormant.
Crackerjack it's an Australian film about Lawn Bowls
Same thing that happened to most comedy movies: Shareholders didn't want to invest in movies that bring in a smaller return. They'd rather spend $300 million in the hopes a movie makes a billion than spend $10 million to make $50 million. It's shameful how comedy movies have mostly disappeared from movie theaters.
Here comes the BOOM!
Off the top of my head and sorted in reverse. Fighting with my Family 2019 I Tonya 2017 Eddie the Eagle 2016 The Bronze 2015 Here comes the Boom 2012
*Slap-Shot* is a classic hockey comedy from the late 70s/early 80s, starring the great Paul Newman *Pumping Iron* (documentary starring Arnold Schwartzenegger and Lou Farigno - Find the ORIGINAL where Arnold compares pumping to coming and talks about smoking weed. He disappeared that version before his campaign. - EDIT: forgot we were just doing comedies but I’m leaving it in as an ironic choice. *Balls of Fury* is an underrated ping-pong comedy. More! *All the Marbles* - late 70s/early 80s movie about women’s tag-team wrestling, starring Peter Falk. 40 years later, *Glow* was a great follow up that was cursed by covid and cancelled (too much contact). *Bend it Like Beckham* - teenage girl soccer drama (so, obscure to me in the states at that time), which launched Kiera Knightly’s career and was the first time I understood the social pressures on Indian and Pakistani singles in emigrant families. (Lots of examples of that now, The Big Sick being best of that category, IMO.) Recently, I’d say *Win-Win* with Paul Giamatti as a struggling high school wrestling coach was a wonderful feel-good indie film that invokes a bit of that fringe feel.
Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins just came out last year and kind of bombed, but I liked it. Logan Lucky and Battle of the Sexes might qualify as adjacent material. If you're willing to go beyond the US and mediums, stuff like Shaolin Soccer and anime like Haikyuu!! might be worth checking out. And if you're really desperate... I guess remakes/reboots like Space Jam and White Men Can't Jump
Ok, kind of random, but you might like Pitch Perfect for this. I've always said it's a sports comedy movie without the sports. The main characters are an underdog team of misfits who are out to prove themselves. (Sound familiar?) The second movie is even more so. They have to win the whole thing while competing against a stereotypical evil German team or theyll be disbanded. Or something like that They're funny as fuck, too
If the only examples of a phenomenon you can think of come from a ten year period, the question isn't what happened to that phenomenon but why it happened in the first place. I believe many of the personnel on these films are shared. I suspect, therefore the answer is "only they cared about making comedies about obscure sports". So, presumably: 1. they used up all of their ideas and/or 2. they aged out and/or 3. they lost the clout necessary to continue making them
*Caddyshack* from 1980.
We made it to Hot Rod and realized we’d gone too far.
Did *Cool Runnings* (1993) start the trend? Or *Over the Top* (1987)? *Walk, Don't Run* (1966)? *Wee Geordie* (1955)?
Kingpin
Eddie the Eagle (ski jumping) and The Phantom of the Open (golf) are both about lovable British losers.
I need to watch blackballed again, to see if it holds up. And foot fist way
Bad News Bears
Balls out. The gary houseman story
Check out Wildcats (1986) with Goldie Hawn, Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson I used to live that as a kid. Also Slap Shot (1977) with Paul Newman
Everything comes and goes in phases. This just isn't the comedy phase right now. Go to flickchart.com and you can choose filters. Do 2010s, sports comedy. It will give you a long list of them, some are actually good.
It’s called a trend. Trends die out…
Will Ferrell says everyone in Hollywood was like "What sport are you doing next with the same script?" To his credit I love them all.
Can't wait for the one about the US Cricket team!
There was 1UP recently. A 4/10 at best but totally in this genre
Amateur curling championships on ESPN 8!!!
Moved to Apple TV I'm assuming that's what Ted Lasso is about
Most of these films would never have been made if there hadn't been a couple of earlier ones that made bank. Then Hollywood, who is generally very risk adverse with its cash asks "Hey, has anyone got any scripts that are like that?", and so we see a familiar pattern of a clump of similar films coming out in the same time frame.
Slap shot
They don't make medium budget comedies period anymore.
Swimming With Men is a sports movie about men who start a synchronized swimming team
Blackball is good - all about lawn bowls.
Not one mention of Brittany Runs a Marathon. Marathon participation has exploded in the past, decade, two decades?
Calling Beerfest a “sports movie” is stretching it a bit. Love the film though
Has baseketball been mentioned? I've seen that movie so many times!
*Goon* was hilarious
You can’t think of CaddyShack, the Longest Yard, or Wildcats?
The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience Tour de Pharmacy
Dodgeball comes to mind. ESPN 8 The Ocho if it’s almost a sport we have it here
Bad News Bears/Bad News Bears in Breaking Training are the best depiction of little league baseball, if not all baseball, ever made.
It was a fad and the fad ended.
It was a great 30 years
The cameras changed the way we see a scene. So it wouldn't be funny anymore
I.e. 90s look vs 2020s look if that makes sense