Adam Sandler’s recent films over the last decade might not receive critical praise, but why should he care? The 50-year-old SNL alum has made a career out of goofing off with his buddies in front of cameras and getting paid handsomely for it. To that end, Sandler’s own film studio, Happy Madison Productions, signed a four-movie deal with Netflix in 2014 and has so far released two films exclusively on Netflix: the critically-condemned films The Ridiculous 6 and The Do-Over, which enjoy 3% and 5% favorable ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively. A third Sandler/Netflix film, Sandy Wexler, debuts this week on April 14. The fourth film agreed upon in that original deal has yet to be announced.
Possibly to generate buzz for Sandy Wexler, or possibly to keep sinking money into the perpetually-beaten dead horse that is Happy Madison Productions, Netflix recently signed a new four-movie deal with Sandler and his studio. All four films will debut exclusively on the streaming service. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos apparently doesn’t read reviews, judging from the statement released with this announcement:
Adam Sandler is one of the leading comedians in the film world, and his movies have proven to be extremely successful with our subscribers around the world. We are thrilled at the opportunity to extend our partnership with Adam and his entire team at Happy Madison and keep the world laughing.
What decade is this guy in? Does he mean laughing with or laughing at? Well, laughing is laughing I suppose. While Sandler’s first two offerings might not have been reviewed positively, they remain the biggest and most expensive original films Netflix has released so far. In fact, The Ridiculous 6, no matter how bad, rose to become the most-watched movie in Netflix history in its first thirty days on the streaming service. Some people just want to watch the world burn – on Netflix, that is.
