Scribe William Goldman’s observation about Hollywood that “nobody knows anything” continues to be true. From THR:

Combined, the summer’s five R-rated comedies have grossed $1.05 billion to date, an astounding total for a genre of movies that was considered second-rate only a few years ago.



As a comparison, that number is slightly ahead of the $1.01 billion earned so far by the usual parade of summer superhero pics — Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern and Captain America: The First Avenger.



— —



The collective strength of these R-rated comedies is unprecedented and marks a major shift for Hollywood. A decade ago, studios thought the genre was washed up, after the burst of success enjoyed by American Pie franchise and There’s Something About Mary. There was renewed hope with Wedding Crashers in 2005 and the rise of the Judd Apatow raunchy-sweet empire, but that was followed by another downturn.

So while thrillers have replaced comedy as the #1-selling genre among spec script thus far this year, R-rated comedies show renewed vigor. And not just at the box office as the recent seven-figure deal for screenwriter Justin Malen’s comedy spec “Bastards” aptly demonstrates. It figures Hwood would be super receptive to this sub-genre for many reasons including this one:

It’s no wonder why R-rated laffers are Hollywood’s darling, since they can be made for a fraction of the cost of big action titles. They also can have better legs than other genres. As an example, Bridesmaids has earned more than six times its opening domestic gross of $26.2 million.

And this one:

Another reason for the boom is that beginning with Hangover, R-rated pics are enjoying sizeable returns overseas. It used to be that American comedy didn’t travel very well internationally, although Something About Mary’s A-list cast helped the pic earn a healthy $193.4 million in 1998. Hangover Part II actually made more overseas than in North America, earning $310.4 million offshore and $252.5 million domestically. Bad Teacher and Bridesmaids also are doing well overseas, grossing $71 million and $70.4 million to date (both are still rolling out). Likewise, Horrible Bosses got off to a strong start at the international box office over the weekend of July 22–24, grossing $3.4 million in the U.K.

Now before you dust off that family comedy spec of yours and starting throwing in a few F-bombs and some gratuitous nudity to turn a PG-13 story into a R-rated one, you will note that the raunchy nature of these five successful movies goes directly back to the underlying story concept. So if you want to try to cash in on this sub-genre, my advice: Start from scratch. And while you’re at it, make sure your R-rated story concept is as good as these:



Hangover Part 2: Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu’s wedding. Stu’s plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.



Bridesmaids: Picked as her best friend’s maid of honor, lovelorn and broke Annie looks to bluff her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals with an oddball group of bridesmaids.



Bad Teacher: A foul-mouthed, junior high teacher who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague — a move that pits her against a well-loved teacher.



Horrible Bosses: Three friends conspire to murder their awful bosses when they realize they are standing in the way of their happiness.



Friends With Benefits: While trying to avoid the clichés of Hollywood romantic comedies, Dylan and Jamie soon discover however that adding the act of sex to their friendship does lead to complications.



For more of the Hollywood Reporter article, go here.

Comment Archive