Judd Apatow Says R-Rated Comedies Can Come Back to Theaters: ‘Something as Funny’ as ‘The Hangover’ Would ‘Make a Billion Dollars’ Today
Judd Apatow, who dominated the big screen for more than a decade with comedy hits like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Superbad,” “Step Brothers” and “Bridesmaids,” has weighed in on R-rated comedy movies vanishing from theaters.
The director, writer and producer told Variety on the “SNL50” carpet that all it takes is “one person with a great idea” to revitalize the genre at the box office. Once there’s another comedy hit, “suddenly everyone wants to do it again,” Apatow said. “These things kind of swing back and forth. If someone made something as funny as ‘The Hangover’ right now, it would make a billion dollars, and everyone would be trying to do that. It ebbs and it flows, and hopefully it’ll flow soon.”
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Agreeing with his frequent comedy collaborator Seth Rogen, Apatow said he does not believe comedy is harder than it used to be due to political correctness.
“I don’t think there’s a content obstacle,” Apatow said, arguing instead that it’s studios and other film financiers that are looking to make “very visual” projects designed to be as broad as possible.
“They tend to want to make things that will play well in Asia,” Apatow said. “Will people also like this in Bulgaria? Comedy is very local to America. The obstacle to getting things done is … everything that gets made [needs] to be the largest thing in the world. Comedy isn’t always meant to be like that. Comedy isn’t like an action movie.”
Still, in the streaming era, Apatow is pleased by the fact that anything can have an unexpected resurgence — like “Girls,” which he executive produced with Lena Dunham. He namechecked his Please Don’t Destroy movie, “The Treasure of Foggy Mountain,” which “left Peacock and went to Amazon, then went back to Peacock and was on the top of the chart.”
“Everything bubbles up on all these different streamers and networks,” Apatow said. “Things that you thought disappeared, like ‘Walk Hard,’ suddenly is insanely popular. ‘Freaks and Geeks’ seems to be perennially very popular… ‘The Cable Guy.’ That’s the fun of making these things — they never really disappear.”
Elsewhere in Apatow’s interview with Variety, he addressed speculation that he could replace Lorne Michaels as chief of “Saturday Night Live” — if Michaels ever decides to retire.
“I don’t know. This is the first I’ve heard of it. No one’s calling me!” Apatow said. “I think there’s a bunch more qualified people who are really in the trenches of how you make this show. It’s a very, very hard show to make. They are up all night, the exhaustion level to create it… I’ve just watched it as a visitor. I don’t know, as a man of my age, if I’m ready. I think they need a 16-year-old! They need a child to do it with a lot of energy.”
Jokes aside: “There’s no call yet. If it comes in, we’ll talk about it, but it’s not coming in.”
Watch Apatow’s full red carpet interview above.
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