Raunchy Comedies Try for a Comeback in Theaters

Jennifer Lawrence’s ‘No Hard Feelings’ leads a raft of R-rated theatrical bets as studios look for fare that will stand out to moviegoers: “A difficult thing to do.”

The first trailer for Sony’s sex comedy No Hard Feelings, hitting theaters June 23, includes star Jennifer Lawrence consoling an ex by declaring she hasn’t forgotten him: “Last night, I thought, ‘I miss that fucker.’ ” Moviegoers might share similar nostalgia, recalling a not-long-ago era when studio offerings centering on ribald jokes would regularly play theatrically — before going missing. 

This summer suggests a possible changing of the tide. As audiences return to cinemas post-pandemic, studios appear to be using the next few months as a testing ground for the theatrical return of the R-rated comedy. No Hard Feelings, about an awkward teen whose parents hire Lawrence’s character to date him, will later have company from Lionsgate’s Joy Ride (July 7), Universal’s Strays (Aug. 18) and MGM’s Bottoms (Aug. 25). Such projects are akin to horror films in offering viewers the experience of watching shocking moments with a group of like-minded strangers. But unlike the horror genre, it’s been a while since raunchy comedy fans have had a headline-grabbing theatrical title to rally around. 

“It is absolutely not an easy genre,” Universal president of domestic theatrical distribution Jim Orr tells The Hollywood Reporter of raunchy comedies. “We still think it’s an important genre. We still think it’s something that makes sense theatrically — but a difficult thing to do.”

After touching the zeitgeist in the late ‘90s with There’s Something About Mary and American Pie, bawdy comedy thrived in the ensuing decade (think 40-Year-Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, Superbad). But while later hits like The Hangover (2009), Bridesmaids (2011), Ted (2012) and 22 Jump Street (2014) all ranked among the top 15 highest-grossing titles domestically of their respective years, viewers seeking big laughs, bad words and horny leads in recent years have had to largely rely on catching streaming-service offerings from the couch.

Just as Disney’s decision to release Pixar titles directly to Disney+ may have impacted viewer habits en route to Elemental’s disappointing box office debut, No Hard Feelings has been tracking for an opening bow of near $12 million, meaning it will need legs to be a hit. A typical selling point for comedies is the low budget, but this one was pricey, with Lawrence said to have been looking for a $25 million payday when Sony outbid streamers in 2021.

Among the R-rated comedies to land on streaming platforms in lieu of theaters since 2022 include Netflix’s Rebel Wilson vehicle Senior Year, Kevin Hart-starring Me Time and Eddie Murphy-fronted You People, the latter leading the way among these titles with 3.86 billion viewing minutes and four weeks logged in the streamer’s top 10, per Nielsen.

“Lots of genres have disappeared when they’re made so aggressively in a streaming space,” says Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group president Sanford Panitch. “The studios aren’t going to make Christmas comedies if there are six Christmas comedies on a streaming platform. So it’s partly about finding the spaces that are theatrical, and not feeling that there’s something that someone can get at home for free.”

For filmmakers, knowing what lifts a project in the comedy space remains as elusive as the genre looks to snap this lull. “The message I’m getting from studio execs is they want big event comedies and racy R-rated comedies that people will talk about,” says Tracy Oliver, the scribe behind Lionsgate’s horror-comedy The Blackening — which opened to $7 million over the Juneteenth holiday — who also wrote 2017’s popular Girls Trip and is working on its sequel. “Movies like Girls Trip 2 and The Blackening pass the litmus test for theatrical because they are considered event comedies that are meant to be enjoyed in big groups.”

While streaming may offer ease for consumers, creatives across the board covet a theatrical release. Such was the case for screenwriter Dan Perrault — whose live-action Strays follows a dog voiced by Will Ferrell seeking revenge against his negligent owner — and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Teresa Hsiao and Adele Lim, the writers behind Joy Ride, about a woman traveling across China to find her birth mother. (“Huge, high priority — absolute goal,” Chevapravatdumrong says of it playing in theaters.)

“There does seem to be some idea of, ‘Let’s release these $15 million comedies on streaming instead of at the theater,’” says LP, director of 2020 Netflix comedy Desperados. She praises the platform’s support of the film, which was set up at Universal before she was attached, but acknowledges that having a movie in theaters “would be a dream.” That said, the helmer notes that going to theaters could bring pressure around the opening weekend and quips about her movie’s memorable set piece: “Does the dolphin penis stay if you’re going to the theater? Maybe not.” 

Studios aren’t alone in monitoring audience interest for this summer’s options. “Joy Ride is going to be a very good test, and if it’s successful, then people will be like, ‘Oh, my God, big comedy is back,'” says Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee. “Everyone is risk-averse, particularly with theatrical, so it’s going to be very interesting to see what happens.”

Another factor is that the Peak TV era has lured studios into making series out of ideas that might have previously earned feature treatment. Take Ted, which collected a whopping $218 million domestically in 2012 ($289 million today, adjusted for inflation) before a 2015 sequel underperformed; a prequel series is soon heading to Peacock. Filmmaker Nick Stoller (Neighbors) places his new Apple TV+ show Platonic, starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, in a similar category and says of the show’s team, “We would talk about how a version of this would have been a movie 10 years ago, but it’s easier to just do this on the small screen.”

Filmmakers stress that theatrical is important for the life span of a feature, particularly a comedy. “If I was in charge of the studios, I would put all my comedy money behind R-rated comedies,” says Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat). While Feig’s more recent projects, including last year’s The School for Good and Evil for Netflix, have veered away from the space, he soon returns with R-rated Grand Death Lotto, eyeing a 2024 release. It hails from Amazon Studios, but Feig sees the possibility of theatrical release as one of the pluses of working with the company, which recently debuted Air in theaters: “I’m pushing very, very hard to get a theatrical release for this because it’s a group experience.”

Jeremy Garelick, who worked on the script for The Hangover and has directed films including Netflix’s recent Adam Sandler offering Murder Mystery 2, is so confident in the R-rated teen comedy genre that he launched production company American High, which acquired a high school in Syracuse, New York, to use for shooting inexpensive films. Garelick, who worked at CAA when the original American Pie script was passed around, is betting that pop culture follows a roughly 20-year cycle as adolescents grow up to become the new gatekeepers. He says of teen sex films, “It’s going to come back — it’s just a matter of time.” 

In Hollywood’s increasingly IP-driven era, the studio risk-taking required to support original comedy ideas has waned, although the superhero craze shows signs of audience fatigue. One franchise readying its anticipated return is Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool films, which have managed to successfully infuse high-octane action with F-bombs and penis jokes.

“When I saw Deadpool, I was like, ‘Fucking I should have made this movie,’” says Kevin Smith, the Clerks director and comic book fanatic who has more recently eschewed the studio system and followed a model that involves taking his films on a nationwide theatrical tour. He praises Fox for initially taking a chance with the boundary-pushing Deadpool: “The studio wasn’t initially interested in doing that, and then they did and were rewarded for going out on the edge.”