Sydney Sweeney and Jennifer Lawrence — comedy thanks you

🎬 Is the Mid-Budget Comedy Movie Back?

It’s a topic that’s come up more than once on the Always Be Comedy podcast: the mid-budget comedy movie—once the backbone of cinematic joy—is dead. Or at least, it was. And what a crying shame.

Think of the classics: Planes, Trains and Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Groundhog Day, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (which, by the way, just turned 20—directed by Always Be Comedy friend-of-the-night Judd Apatow), Happy Gilmore, Sister Act, Airplane, Spinal Tap. And on and on. These weren’t mega-budget blockbusters. They were character-driven, laugh-out-loud gems that didn’t need a superhero or a multiverse to get you into the cinema. Just a good script, a few stellar performances, and a whole lot of heart. Think of John Candy’s “I like me. My wife likes me” speech from Planes, Trains. Pure cinema (and, OK, one of the saddest bits in a perfect comedy, but we then get the “Those aren’t pillows!” scene minutes later. So, you know, swings and roundabouts).

But then something shifted. The cinema became a place for events. You go to see the latest Marvel epic, the next Christopher Nolan mind-bender, or a billion-dollar franchise instalment. The mid-budget comedy? It seemed to have been quietly ushered out the back door, replaced by streaming originals (and some of these were great! I maintain that Vacation Friends – starring the brilliant Lil Rel Howery and John Cena – is a treat!) or—worse—nothing at all.

And then, in 2023, something changed...

Perhaps due the pandemic (which has, weirdly, become something that we all simply never talk about, but that’s for another time), we needed to get out of the house and laugh (we at Always Be Comedy certainly felt this first-hand - we went from a weekly Thursday gig pre-Panny D to, well, approximately 87 shows a week (give or take) post Panny D. And - to misquote Freddie Mercury on We Are The Champions - "we thank you all").

In 2023, Jennifer Lawrence gave us No Hard Feelings—a fun, throwback comedy that felt like it could’ve sat comfortably alongside Superbad or There’s Something About Mary. Then came Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, a rom-com that didn’t try to reinvent the genre, but, rather, reminded us why we loved it in the first place. Both films were modest in budget, big on laughs, and—crucially—cinema releases. People went. People laughed. People remembered. And I know what you’re thinking: do we comedy nerds owe a debt of thanks to Jennifer Lawrence and Sydney Sweeney? Yes. Yes, we do (we can also shoehorn in Margot Robbie and 2023 mega-smash Barbie, but mid-budget that certainly was not).

And now, the tide seems to be turning. Thank you, J-Laws and Ms Sweeney!

In Hollywood, money talks. And, if there’s gold in them thar character-led comedy movies, then come back they shall! Prime Video has been doing some heavy lifting (thank you, You’re Cordially Invited and Deep Cover; and you can absolutely listen to our podcast with writers Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen aka The Pin). Happy Gilmore 2 (what a shame that didn't get a cinematic release!) was a mega-smash for Netflix, achieving the biggest US opening weekend in Netflix history, with 46.7 million views in its first three days. One Of Them Days was a decent hit on a modest budget for Sony, with a sequel in the works at the time of typing. And – the one that’s really got Always Be Comedy rubbing its hands together – we’ve got Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves in upcoming comedy Good Fortune, as well as the much-anticipated Spinal Tap II.

Why the comedy comeback? Maybe it’s the times. The news is bleak, the world feels heavy, and sometimes you just want to get out of the house and have a laugh. Not a three-hour epic. Not a dystopian allegory. Not a franchise film where you needed to have seen the previous 312 films and spin-off TV series to have any clue of what’s going on. Just a comedy. Ninety minutes. Popcorn. Done (Groundhog Day is one of the greatest films of all time and – if you don’t sit through the end credits – is a shade over 90 minutes. Ditto masterpiece Planes, Trains). People enjoy laughing. Who'd have thought it?!

And, hey, it’s not just the cinema where you can go for a relatively cheap laugh. There is, of course, your friendly neighbourhood comedy night... Although, to be fair, on the nights where we’ve had five acts on a mixed bill, we appreciate that we too have staged the odd Nolan-busting three-hour epic. So, you know, swings and roundabouts.