‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Star Adam DeVine Says Marvel “Ruined” The Ability For Hollywood To Produce Comedies: “People Go To The Theater Expecting To Watch Something That Costs $200 Million To Make And Comedy Movies Aren’t That”
Spencer Baculi
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In the opinion of actor Adam DeVine, both Marvel’s exorbitant budgets and a general desire by studios to inject a “hidden message” into everything are to blame for the currently abysmal state of the Hollywood comedies.
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) split kicks a pair of Booskan speeders in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Marvel Entertainment via Blu-ray
DeVine, best known for his own comedic appearances as Andy Bailey on Modern Family, Bumper in the Pitch Perfect franchise, and a highly-exaggerated version of himself on his own co-created television series Workaholics, offered his thoughts on the current state of comedic media during an appearance on the 451st episode of fellow comedian Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast.
Met at one point during their conversation with an assertion from Von that “It’s so hard to get a movie created and to the finish line, especially these days it seems even harder,” DeVine opined, “Dude, especially comedies nowadays. You have to mask it.”
“That’s why [DeVine’s recent film, The Out-Laws] is a big ‘action’ comedy – you really have to go like ‘action, action and then it’s a comedy’,” explained the comedian. “It’s why I was so happy to work with [Adam] Sandler’s company [Happy Madison Productions]. We could just go full-steam on the comedy as opposed to…You know you watch comedies these days and you’re like…’No, this isn’t a f—ing comedy. Where’s the joke? Where’s the bits?”
The Out-Laws. Adam DeVine as Owen Browning in The Out-Laws. Cr. Scott Yamano/Netflix © 2023.
Asked by Von, “Comedy’s gotten kinda bad huh?”, DeVine then asserted, “Yeah, it kinda sucks. There’s still good shows and stuff, but movie comedy…it’s hard.”
Pressed for his thoughts on just why comedic movies have become so difficult to produce, The Righteous Gemstones star speculated, “My theory? I think Marvel ruined it.”
Spider-Man (Tom Holland) responds to reports of a super-villain attack in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Marvel Entertainment
“I feel like super hero movies kind of ruined comedies because people go to the theater and expect to watch something that costs $200 million dollars to make, and comedy movies aren’t that,” said the actor. “So you’re like, “Why would I spend the same amount of money to go watch a little comedy in the theater if I could spend the same amount of money and go see something that is worth $200 million dollars?’ And then they still make those movies kind of funny – I mean, they’re not comedies, but they’re like, ‘Oh my god, is that Raccoon talking?! This is hilarious!’ Which, it is, but yeah, it’s not like real comedy.”
“There used to be something like…every studio would put out several comedies every year, and there was like 45 or 46 comedies in the theaters every year,” DeVine then recalled. “So about every week, or every other week or so, there’s a new comedy in theaters. Then now, last year, there was like six or seven. It’s crazy.”
The Out-Laws. (L to R) Pierce Brosnan as Billy McDermott, Adam DeVine as Owen Browning in The Out-Laws. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023.
Drawing a response of “And the crazy thing is it feels like people need comedy more than ever” from Von, DeVine affirmed, “Yeah, I feel like they want it. So that’s what this movie was. And there’s no like hidden message.”
“I feel like nowadays,” he continued, “you get to the end of what you think is a comedy and you’re like ‘…Is that about global warming?’ Is there some deep hidden message that I’m supposed to recycle more?’ There has to be something else with it.”
The Celestial Tiamat emerges from Earth’s core in Eternals (2021), Marvel Entertainment
At that point making a slight digression to speak on Hollywood’s insistence towards ideological pandering, DeVine then reflected on how, “My job now is kind of, well obviously acting and that kind of stuff, but then like I’m pitching a lot, so I’ll like pitch movies, and every executive is like ‘But why should we make this movie now?'”
“And you’re like ‘Because it’s funny, because it’s funny b—-h’,” the actor exclaimed. “Whatever happened to we want to make people laugh?”
Agreeing with Von’s subsequent argument that a project “doesn’t need to attach itself to some like, hook in the world right now,” DeVine added, “I mean, if it does, and that’s the movie, then sure. But it doesn’t always have to. Whatever happened to just ‘It’s funny for funny’s sake’?
The Out-Laws. (L to R) Pierce Brosnan as Billy, Adam DeVine as Owen, Ellen Barkin as Lilly, Nina Dobrev as Parker in The Out-Laws. Cr. Scott Yamano/Netflix © 2023.
Dovetailing back to his original point regarding inflated budgets, DeVine detailed, “Like, [Bert Kresicher’s] The Machine and Sebastian Maniscalco’s movie, About My Father, I think the fact that they put both of those movies out on the same weekend, I’m like ‘That f—-ing sucks’.”
“Cuz you’re putting out six movies all year long and then you put two of them out on the same weekend?” said the actor. “Like if you’re going to go see a comedy you had to choose between these two? And then when those movies only make eight million dollars or whatever on opening weekend, well you’re like, ‘Maybe if it was just the one movie, it maybe could have made $15 Million or $16 Million. And that’s a healthy amount for it to make.”
The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) rains her Hex Bolts down upon Kamar Taj in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Marvel Entertainment
Drawing his discussion of Hollywood’s unrealistic ecosystem to a close, DeVine told Von and his listeners, “So yeah, if you like comedies, support comedies, watch [the film], tell your friends to watch it, and then we’ll have the opportunity to make more of them.”
“And people, you know, are like ‘Well if you made better comedies, then..,'” he ultimately concluded. “And it’s like, sure, but it’s hard to make a movie first of all. And secondly, there used to be like 40 shots [at] making a good comedy, and then if maybe two or three of them were classic comedy. Like Old School. There were like 28 other movies that weren’t Old School that came out that year, you know what I mean? So the more opportunities we get to make classic comedies, the more we’ll be able to nail it.”
The Out-Laws. Adam DeVine as Owen Browning (Center) in The Out-Laws. Cr. Scott Yamano/Netflix © 2023.
Unsurprisingly, following his appearance on Von’s show, DeVine’s comments were picked up by the mainstream media.
However, unfortunately for the actor, many outlets framed his opinion as him blaming Marvel for ruining the standards of what is considered comedy rather than it being a criticism of Hollywood’s insane profit expectations.
As such, DeVine took to his personal Twitter account on August 8th to offer a clarification on his words.
Retweeting Variety’s coverage of his appearance, the actor asserted, “As a guy who loves movies and tv it’s cool to be in Variety but this is misleading. I like Marvel and think these movies are cool. I was saying that studios (in trying to compete with Marvel) have stopped making mid budget comedies. I miss seeing comedy in the theaters!”
Archive Link Adam DeVine via Twitter
Following the story of a young man who suspects that his soon-to-be in-laws may be the very same criminals who very recently robbed his place of work, Devine’s latest project, The Out-Laws, is now available for streaming exclusively on Netflix.
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