Are Comedies Dying? Sort Of…
In the age of streaming and post-pandemic recovery, Hollywood continues to bet on the safe returns of franchise sequels, family movies, or loud blow-up fodder. Looking at the top 200 box office movies of 2024, I saw what I expected: there isn’t a franchise-free movie until It Ends with Us at number 16. I know. Here comes the usual “Hollywood ran out of ideas!” crowd.
But I noticed another pretty glaring thing.
I wasn’t really seeing straight, mid-budget comedies. This may be hard to realize because traditional comedies haven’t hit the collective conscious for a long time.
But hold on, you might say to me. What about Deadpool and Wolverine? That’s number 2! What about The Fall Guy? What about 2023’s record-breaking blockbuster Barbie? Wicked is a comedy! Everything Everywhere All At Once won almost all the Oscars in 2022 —
Yes. All of that is entirely true. Those undeniably all fall under the “comedy” genre, in which the only true prerequisite is to make the audience intentionally laugh. I’m not talking about moments of brevity, or little quips to add personality. These are movies with a particular coating of humor all throughout its runtime. Yet the comedy genre as a whole has changed substantially.
Is it dead, or has it just morphed? If so, will standard, mid-budget, standalone comedies come back?
First, A Brief History of Comedies
Before getting into comedies of the 2020s, let’s observe comedies of decades preceding.
I’ll go back to the Golden Age of the Comedy: the 2000s. The 2010s had decent comedies — 21 Jump Street, This Is The End, Bridesmaids, Blockers, Pitch Perfect, Easy A — but it paled in comparison to the absolute comedy boon of the ’00s. If you were to ask me to name a handful of movies from that era that was billed to give you 90 to 120 minutes of laughter, I can ring classic after classic.
Anchorman. School of Rock. Accepted. The Hangover. Superbad. Legally Blonde. Napoleon Dynamite. Rat Race. Bruce Almighty. Zoolander. Dodgeball. Best in Show. Saving Silverman. Idiocracy. This was the age of the Frat Pack, of Judd Apatow’s reign. These were standard, to-the-core comedies with flavors of workplace (Anchorman), coming-of-age (Napoleon Dynamite, Superbad), buddy-adventure (The Hangover) and so on.
Meanwhile, comedies with a clear double-genre still tended to bill its “comedy” element first. Tropic Thunder is an action-comedy — but it’s sold on its humor first. The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a rom-com, with an emphasis on the “com.”
Preceding the 2000s goldmine, the ’90s produced comedies like Tommy Boy, Dumb and Dumber, Office Space, and The Big Lebowski. They sold with recognizable faces and very straightforward premises. All audiences expected was a fun time with Chris Farley or Jim Carrey.
The ’80s was the era of slapstick with such movies as Airplane!, Weekend at Bernie’s, and the Police Academy and The Naked Gun franchises. Overall, the ’80s developed the popularity of double-genres and comedy sub-sects. Ghostbusters is a sci-fi comedy. The Back to the Future movies are adventure comedies. John Hughes revolutionized the family or coming-of-age comedy: think Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Uncle Buck, or the National Lampoon’s Vacation series.
However, launching this decades-long wave was the explosion of new comedic talent in the ’70s. Comedies of course existed in decades prior.
But then a little variety show in New York City called Saturday Night Live sprung onto the scene.
While the ’70s saw the continued dominance of Mel Brooks and the overseas phenomenon of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Saturday Night Live transformed the comedy genre by going on to be responsible for bringing global rise to legends. SNL surged the careers of comedy powerhouses like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and regular guest Steve Martin. Following in the decades after came the likes of Will Ferrell, Eddie Murphy, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Farley, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Chris Rock, Tina Fey and Bowen Yang.
Why Comedies Were Popular
It’s this boon of comedic acting and writing talent that gave rise to the comedy as a worldwide genre.
Any “standalone” mid-budget comedy truly stems its marketability from the names attached to it. Television played a great role as a free, effortless way to expose audiences to comedic actors that they would, in turn, hand over box office cash to see on the big screen.
SNL was a bottomless well of talent, but general sitcoms also helped. See Robin Williams, who owes his start not to SNL, but Mork & Mindy. Likewise, Canadian variety shows like SCTV and In Living Color brought forth comedy regulars like John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, and Jim Carrey.
However, the comedy drive between the 1980s and the 2000s began to dwindle. It wasn’t for lack of talent, or even lack of talent exposure. The cinematic landscape simply changed.
More specifically, the comedy genre got knocked off the pedestal.
Welcome the Superhero Era
In 2008, Iron Man changed the world. Leading up to it was the success of Sony’s X-Men franchise and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series, but Iron Man was a keystone film. Cinema simply would never be the same again, even if audiences didn’t know it at the time.
I won’t get too deep into how the superhero era absolutely dominated the last fifteen years of filmmaking, but I will remark on how it has affected studio decision-making.
The first summer blockbuster was 1977’s Jaws. Following it that same year was Star Wars. Like Iron Man, Star Wars changed cinema by introducing not just blockbusters…but blockbuster franchises. The franchises of the ’80s include Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Predator, and the continuation of Rocky. Franchises were popular, but they didn’t dominate. They comfortably existed alongside standalone movies.
However, Iron Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe told studios that the serialization and re-familiarization of movie properties was far more profitable and culturally relevant than a contained $50 million romp. Franchises exploded, whether it be from new movies or old, reminisced properties. Remakes, retellings, and sequels abounded.
The unfortunate reality for comedies is that it is simply difficult for them to continue and to create returns. That is, movies that are comedies alone.
The Rise of Streamed and Double-Genre Comedies
Anyone saying that comedy as a genre is unsuccessful can look no further than Barbie. It made gigantic cultural waves, broke box office records, and hit critical acclaim. It also benefits from incredible brand recognition. And still, it could simply be classified as a straightforward comedy. But Barbie is an outlier. In fact, part of its success can be attributed to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, in which the coincided release of Christopher Nolan’s anticipated war drama Oppenheimer made Barbie part of an Internet sensation.
Standalone comedies still exist today, but they’re not really found lingering in the theaters. Streaming services give life to the genre, from Amazon’s Ricky Stanicky to Netflix’s Hit Man. Streaming also helps provide exposure to low-budget indie comedies like Shiva Baby, Bottoms, and Hundreds of Beavers. Streaming also helped 2023 Oscar-nominated comedies Glass Onion and Triangle of Sadness post festival-cycle.
Meanwhile, notice the comedies that do bring in box office cash. They’re double-genre movies.
Deadpool & Wolverine was the second highest-grossing film of 2024. Hilarious as it was, it wasn’t just a comedy. It was a superhero-comedy (or a sci-fi comedy, depending on whether or not you classify “superhero” as a separate genre).
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is at number 11 on the 2024 box office highest-grossing list. But again, this isn’t just a comedy. It’s a horror-comedy — with the added help of it being a nostalgia-based sequel.
I could go on. Think of 2022's The Lost City — action-adventure rom-com following the blueprint of Romancing the Stone. The previously-mentioned Wicked and The Fall Guy: beloved musical-comedy and action-comedy, respectively. Despicable Me 4, Kung Fu Panda 4, Moana 2 — all family comedy sequels.
But let’s not just limit this to box office juggernauts. What about comedies with a healthy amount of film exposure, well above the yearly $8 million worldwide box office average but below global sensation status? The highly-acclaimed Everything Everywhere All At Once earned $143 million and is absolutely a comedy…but also a sci-fi action drama. The Holdovers was a Best Picture nominee and earned $45 million worldwide — as a coming-of-age dramedy. Cocaine Bear earned $88 million, not just as a comedy, but as a horror-action comedy.
In contrast, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent had a massive marketing campaign. Ads were everywhere: “We’re the meta-Nicolas Cage comedy!” Even if we are to classify it as an action-comedy, calling it a comedy standalone would probably be more appropriate.
Unbearable Weight grossed $29 million, above the $8 million average. Unfortunately, it was out of its $30 million budget. Perhaps too many people wanted to wait for it to release on streaming.
Comedy isn’t dead, but it certainly isn’t the genre that it once was.
Cinema moves through stages. Comedies could possibly come back the way they used to, but it would take a change of culture.
One could consider other elements as a factor to comedy’s decline in popularity: the changing political landscape makes more raunchy, controversial humor a bigger risk for studios to take. Comedic talent doesn’t just have film to work with, but podcasts, standup specials, and a changing television landscape. Audiences aren’t just looking for a laugh, but a call to old times and a more dynamic, immersive experience.
It’s interesting to witness new ages of film before us. Comedies clearly defined the 2000s. Superhero movies defined the 2010s. Now, we’re in an era where the studio is king. From here, we shall see where movies will take us.
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