Late Night' and the Decline of Comedy at the Box Office: Is Netflix Really to Blame?

[ShaDynasty]

TV comedies are way better. There was something magical happening in the 80s, so many classic comedy movies came out in that era.

I think comedy flicks suck now at least partly due to studios wanting to be PC and 'inclusive', which is an obvious handicap to comedy. Not everything should be inclusive, it just makes everything homogenized and dull and in this case it also means dropping funny jokes that might offend people.

But theres other problems like Netflix and the fact that its been boring, dated comics like Seth Rogen, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Melissa McCarthy making the same cookie cutter crap for years now.

 

[O.Red]

Blame Will Ferrell. He killed comedies

Once they let Ferrell adlib and scream through movies and it became successful the first few times(Elf, Anchorman,Talledega Nights) barely written comedies became the new standard

So now you get all these comedies with a skeleton script, which are just vehicles for whoever the big comedy name is at the moment to freestyle and shout random shyt for 5 minutes at a time. That or have somebody fat run and fall for 2 hours(Melissa McCarthy)

 

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

All Hail Al Bundy

 

[MartyMcFly]

It’s not Netflix’s fault. Studios aren’t investing big money in comedies anymore because the return ain’t much. Therefore they go to Netflix. Because people have decided Netflix and Hulu and amazon are there for smaller movies

All this digital ink being spilt when it’s a pretty simple answer

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

another issue is so many movies across genres have made general stars funny while there are very few standout real comedians... going back to my black shyt, you had chris tuckr, martin, chappelle (tho not a huge star until the 00's), bernie, hughley, harvey, ced, rock, jamie foxx (dude was a hilarious standup to me), murphy, plus a bunch of popular second tier comedians (earthquake, lavelle, fiazon, epps, sommore, bill bellamy etc) who could hold down movies, now the only people being labeled comedians are a bunch of pedestrian IG "comedians", half of whom rely on cross dressing or playing a particular "character"....where are the star comedians (with acting chops)?

 

[Mister_DoItNice]

Nobody is going to the movies to pay to see these watered down “comedy” films. Mindy Kaling never said a damn thing to make me laugh, going back to her time on The Office. So why would I go see her in a movie? This generation killed comedy anyway. You only hear the really funny shyt on podcasts these days. The days of Wedding Crashers, The 40 Year Old Virgin, and Grandma’s Boy are over. Those films would be excoriated if they came out today.

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

Man most comedies are trash. The writing and comedians arent there.
Looking at this list of highest grossing comedies

Ive only fully seen 3 last one being Ted in 2012. The rest of them were either bad and not funny (22 jump st and rich asians) or looked uninteresting to begin with (everything else)

Damm

"Ted" made a grip

 

[ShaDynasty]

Its also a symptom of how the whole "leaving your house to watch a movie" thing is about to stop being a thing.

How many cinemas are going to shut down over the next decade? The big budget blockbusters aren't going to keep movie theaters afloat outside of big cities if people don't bother watching anything inbetween.

 

[O.Red]

Its also a symptom of how the whole "leaving your house to watch a movie" thing is about to stop being a thing.

How many cinemas are going to shut down over the next decade? The big budget blockbusters aren't going to keep movie theaters afloat outside of big cities if people don't bother watching anything inbetween.

Theaters were about to be on their deathbed pre MCU and nobody realizes or wants anybody to remember that

Box office numbers were looking weak a decade ago

 

[ShaDynasty]

Theaters were about to be on their deathbed pre MCU and nobody realizes or wants anybody to remember that

I don't know about that, but streaming wasn't that mainstream 7 years ago.

All they do is increase the ticket prices, and keep pumping out superhero movies. This is a horrible tactic in the long term. There will be a backlash and you'll get a bunch of big movie chains tanking at the same time.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Well the latest Adam Sandler movie on Netflix is the #1 movie in the world if you believe Netflix
I’m sure it raised a few eyebrows when Netflix released those streaming #s

 

[Mr. McDowell]

These movies suck that's why. They aren't funny in the theatre or on home video. They need to let other people write and direct comedies.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

those people are more relateable and accessible than the aforementioned.

another issue is so many movies across genres have made general stars funny while there are very few standout real comedians... going back to my black shyt, you had chris tuckr, martin, chappelle (tho not a huge star until the 00's), bernie, hughley, harvey, ced, rock, jamie foxx (dude was a hilarious standup to me), murphy, plus a bunch of popular second tier comedians (earthquake, lavelle, fiazon, epps, sommore, bill bellamy etc) who could hold down movies, now the only people being labeled comedians are a bunch of pedestrian IG "comedians", half of whom rely on cross dressing or playing a particular "character"....where are the star comedians (with acting chops)?

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

those people are more relateable and accessible than the aforementioned.

Lol @ being a goof in a wig being relatable. The barometer for being “talented” is so fukking low these days, just wow

 

[JerseyBoy23]

Streaming as a whole not just Netflix. The average person only sees action blockbusters in theaters and cinephiles only go to watch serious flicks. Comedy ends up being the blindspot no one goes to see.