Wow - There are only three movies out tof the 36 lettrboxd "comedies of 2020s" you show that are ACTUAL comedies (Bottoms, Anyone But Us, No Hard Feelings). I wonder why the others are genred as such??
With the decade half over, if those three are lifted up as the comedies of the era, we are indeed in sad shape...
Asteroid City was a comedy too. But yeah it’s crazy how many animated movies that don’t even “feel” like comedies are on there. I can understand like Kung Fu Panda or Shrek being called a comedy, but Mario? C’mon.
Love this. Great graphs! I also wonder if there’s something about the competition for comedy is higher with access to Reddit and TikTok. I can sit at my home and have a guaranteed laugh whereas I can’t get Tom Cruise level action unless I see the movie.
Also, kind of sounds like there’s an opportunity for an a24 model (small budgets, medium returns) of comedy
I’ve noticed newer comedy-dramas like Everything Everywhere have an easier time being emotionally engaging than being funny. They’re great dramas but humor feels tacked on and cheesy. Older comedy-dramas were more often the opposite: effortlessly funny but with an unconvincing plot and tacky drama.
Do you know if this new paradigm is actually working for theater owners? Is their per-screen revenue similar to what it was pre-2020 when they used to show comedies and interesting dramas?
Or have they just been able to show Superman on 25% more of their screens than they used to and still make as much money?
Interesting! "The first half of the 20th century saw formats like westerns, war movies, and musicals dominate the big screen." When I read this, I realised that these three genres seem to be making a comeback lately with films like Warfare, Wicked and Eddington. It's funny how most trends are cyclical but rarely capture the vigour of their predecessors.
Another key economic factor is the erosion of the DVD/Blu Ray market. During its peak era, studios could "lose" money theatrically on a comedy but turn profitable later through DVD sales. Big box retailers often sold DVDs as loss leaders creating a huge market in that window. Without that revenue stream, comedies in particular became much more risky propositions for studios. Fewer comedies released = fewer chances for them to break out resulting in another important reason why that genre has been largely ignored theatrically.
Wow - There are only three movies out tof the 36 lettrboxd "comedies of 2020s" you show that are ACTUAL comedies (Bottoms, Anyone But Us, No Hard Feelings). I wonder why the others are genred as such??
With the decade half over, if those three are lifted up as the comedies of the era, we are indeed in sad shape...
Asteroid City was a comedy too. But yeah it’s crazy how many animated movies that don’t even “feel” like comedies are on there. I can understand like Kung Fu Panda or Shrek being called a comedy, but Mario? C’mon.
Love this. Great graphs! I also wonder if there’s something about the competition for comedy is higher with access to Reddit and TikTok. I can sit at my home and have a guaranteed laugh whereas I can’t get Tom Cruise level action unless I see the movie.
Also, kind of sounds like there’s an opportunity for an a24 model (small budgets, medium returns) of comedy
I’ve noticed newer comedy-dramas like Everything Everywhere have an easier time being emotionally engaging than being funny. They’re great dramas but humor feels tacked on and cheesy. Older comedy-dramas were more often the opposite: effortlessly funny but with an unconvincing plot and tacky drama.
Love this read ! - I wonder if something similar is going on to drive Disney's focus on recreating live action movies of original animations.
Do you know if this new paradigm is actually working for theater owners? Is their per-screen revenue similar to what it was pre-2020 when they used to show comedies and interesting dramas?
Or have they just been able to show Superman on 25% more of their screens than they used to and still make as much money?
Interesting! "The first half of the 20th century saw formats like westerns, war movies, and musicals dominate the big screen." When I read this, I realised that these three genres seem to be making a comeback lately with films like Warfare, Wicked and Eddington. It's funny how most trends are cyclical but rarely capture the vigour of their predecessors.
Another key economic factor is the erosion of the DVD/Blu Ray market. During its peak era, studios could "lose" money theatrically on a comedy but turn profitable later through DVD sales. Big box retailers often sold DVDs as loss leaders creating a huge market in that window. Without that revenue stream, comedies in particular became much more risky propositions for studios. Fewer comedies released = fewer chances for them to break out resulting in another important reason why that genre has been largely ignored theatrically.
Source: "The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies" by Ben Fritz. Highly recommended if you haven't read it yet