Exploring Adam Sandler’s Critical and Commercial Divide

I never thought I would say this, but Adam Sandler is one of the most interesting actors of our time. For the most part, Sandler’s work and sense of humor hasn’t dramatically shifted since the ‘90s, but our opinion of him sure has. When you mention Sandler’s name, you typically get one of two reactions: excitement or hipster-level groans. It’s just not cool to like Adam Sandler movies anymore, yet Sandler is one of those few actors whose work brings in the big millions fairly consistently. But listen to me, internet, and let me reveal this dark truth: It’s OK to like Adam Sandler.

Let me explain. I’ve always been interested in the critical and commercial divide that marks Sandler’s work. If the bros in your weekend baseball league loved the latest Sandler man-child comedy, there’s a good chance it was ripped apart by critics. However, Sandler’s comedies represent a rare thing in Hollywood — a sure bet. It’s not uncommon for the comedian’s work to hit the hundred million dollar mark when it comes to box office sales. I’ll bet anything that those relatively consistent numbers are the reason Netflix signed a four movie deal with the former wedding singer. Keeping the tenuous relationship between critical reception and box office success in mind, I wanted to see if this was a cause and effect relationship. Historically, is an Adam Sandler movie more successful if critics hate it? To answer that question, I compared the Metacritic scores and box office sales (taken from IMDB) of 33 Sandler movies (I Am Chris Farley was left out due to its limited release, and The Ridiculous 6 and The Do-Over were excluded because Netflix doesn’t release numbers). What I found is that our relationship with Sandler is a lot more complicated than I originally thought.

The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship

Adam Sandler’s first big movie was the ensemble comedy Mixed Nuts, which starred Steve Martin and is often included on lists of the worst movies ever made. It was a complete commercial and critical flop. This start seems oddly fitting considering Sandler’s current dividing nature. However, Sandler slowly moved past this failure, gaining recognition for his roles in Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Wedding Singer. Each of these three films show a slowly increasing Metacritic score coupled with increasing box office sales.

This is one of the few times in Sandler’s career that critical appreciation and box office success aligned. The most critically and commercially successful film during this time, The Wedding Singer, made $80 million and earned a Metacritic score of 59. However, it’s after this quotable rom com that the divide first happened.

Some High Quality Water

The Waterboy, Sandler’s 1998 sports comedy about being a water boy for a college football team, marks the moment when critical and mainstream opinions of the comedian divided. The Waterboy secured a relatively solid (for a Sandler movie) Metacritic score of 41, but it made over $161 million. It’s not too big of a disparity, but this is the first time in Sandler’s (short at this point) career that box office sales continued to grow, but critical opinion dropped.

Critically, Sandler hit a critical plateau at this point with The Waterboy, Big Daddy, and Little Nicky, which all earned Metacritic scores between 38 and 41. However, Little Nicky surprisingly represents Sandler’s first box office dip. Though the Metacritic score was a sad but not reprehensible 38, Little Nicky only made $39 million in the box office. But don’t worry about Sandler’s career too much. Sandler jumped back up with the release of Mr. Deeds, which made over $126 million. But, with a score of 24, this movie received Sandler’s fifth lowest critical score in history: 24.

A Trend Is Born

For the most part, the rest of Sandler’s career can be characterized by this general rule: if critics dislike a movie, it’s going to make a lot of money. In the case of Punch-Drunk Love, the opposite is true. Sandler’s second highest rated film (78), right after Top Five, only made $17 million at the box office. Funny People follows a similar trend, securing a Metacritic score of 60 but only making $51 million at the box office.

However, with everything in life, there are rules. The Sandler movies that tend to bring in a consistent amount of millions have a Metacritic score around the 40s and 50s. But there are some Sandler movies that just didn’t do well no matter how you slice them. Though it’s now a cult holiday hit, Eight Crazy Nights has a Metacritic score of 23 and only made $23 million at box office. Similarly, That’s My Boy and The Cobbler flopped on both levels, earning scores of 31 and 23 and making $36 million and a shockingly low $850,000 respectively. In fact, Sandler’s least financially successful movies are The Cobbler and Men, Women and Children.

But what are his most profitable movies? Those would certainly be both installments of the Hotel Transylvania franchise. The first movie made over $358 million, and its sequel made a staggering $473 million. Coming in third place is unsurprisingly Grown Ups at $271 million.

So What’s The Point of All This?

First of all, if you’re worried about Adam Sandler’s financial future, stop. He is doing just fine. But more importantly, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when we were all in agreement about liking this comedian. Adam Sandler’s movies are a lot of things — crude, over-the-top, filled with fart jokes — but they’re also consistent. Though the cast and premise may change, you know exactly what you’re going to see when you sit down for an Adam Sandler movie. It’s not going to be a smart critical reflection of the world around you, but it will have fun moments. So before you bash the latest lazy Sandler flick, remember when The Wedding Singer or Mr. Deeds was your favorite movie, and reconsider passing judgement. Sometimes, it’s just nice to like fun things. Also, this particular fun thing has made more money then you will likely see in your life.

Photos: Everett Collection, Netflix

Source: Metacritic, IMDB