Why Adam Sandler’s Highest Grossing Movies Aren’t True Sandlerverse Films

Adam Sandler’s biggest box office hits are, ironically, not from a series associated with the actor’s ever-growing Happy Madison Sandlerverse movies.

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Adam Sandler has starred in plenty of financially successful flicks over the years but ironically, his most lucrative series, the Hotel Transylvania movies, isn’t a Sandlerverse property. Since the franchise began in 2012 with the critically dismissed but financially successful Hotel Transylvania, the Hotel Transylvania series has become the most lucrative property to appear on blockbuster comedy star/occasional indie darling Adam Sandler’s considerable screen CV.

Sandler is no stranger to family-friendly comedy, with the Grown-Ups series and Bedtime Stories both also doing impressive business at the box office (even if 2015’s Pixels flopped disastrously). But the actor is best known for his so-called Sandlerverse movies, goofy comedies that share a set of familiar actors, an over-the-top tone, scatological humor, and a fictional universe.

However, despite the Hotel Transylvania trilogies becoming Sandler’s most financially successful movies with over a billion in box office receipts between them, they’re not true Sandlerverse movies. The movies of the Sandlerverse range in tone from the surreal likes of The Waterboy, Billy Madison, and Little Nicky to more grounded, but still very silly and occasionally crude Drew Barrymore rom-coms The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, and Blended. However, all of them feature recurring characters, roles for Sandler’s real-life friends, and a distinct sweet-but-gross sense of humor absent from the Hotel Transylvania films (which do feature small roles for David Spade and Kevin James, but not the rest of Sandler’s consistent production posse). However, as Sandler has often been accused of acting on autopilot in his recent Sandlerverse movies, it makes sense that this more ambitious animated franchise garnered a warmer reception than his lower-effort comedies.

Both the financial performance and the critical reviews of the Sandlerverse have been mixed, with Happy Gilmore being a universally appreciated cult classic but recent addition Hubie Halloween being largely derided by critics. In this regard, the Hotel Transylvania is not dissimilar, as the first film was met with lukewarm critical reception but scored big at the box office, while subsequent sequels garnered worse reviews but consistently pleased audiences. The visually inventive animation seen in the Hotel Transylvania series could account for why it has outperformed the Sandlerverse’s cinematic outings in financial terms, but there’s also another reason for the enduring success of the family films.

Sandler’s Sanderlverse movies are broadly agreed to have fallen off in quality around the mid-’00s, with many fans saying that the actor’s post-50 First Dates output was missing the spark of his earlier outings. In contrast, the lush, fast-paced animation, silly genre parodies, and all-around invention of the Hotel Transylvania series seem to have reignited the aging Sandler. The actor has been accused in recent years of phoning in his performances in romcoms with interchangeable jokes, from Blended to Just Go With It to Murder Mystery, but despite claims that Sandler sleepwalks through these lesser Netflix outings, he has lit up for more interesting fare like Uncut Gems, Top Five, and the Hotel Transylvania franchise. Judging by the box office, what ignites Sandler’s interest also garners a positive reaction from his fans.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/adam-sandler-highest-grossing-movies-sandlerverse-hotel-transylvania/