An unsettling affair between teacher and student, a failed attempt at action, and a movie that should have stayed in Hell. Adam Sandler may be one of the highest grossing actors of all time, but even he isn't immune to having a few bombs along the way.
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00:00An unsettling affair between teacher and student, a failed attempt at action, and a movie that
00:05should have stayed in hell.
00:07Adam Sandler may be one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, but even he isn't immune
00:12to having a few bombs along the way.
00:141994's Airheads stars Adam Sandler alongside Brendan Fraser and Steve Buscemi as three
00:19struggling musicians in the metal band The Lone Rangers.
00:23After many unsuccessful attempts to get record producers to listen to their music, the trio
00:27head to a radio station to try and get a song broadcast.
00:30When the DJ refuses to play the song, they hold the place up in a last-ditch effort to
00:34get their demo on the air.
00:35While Buscemi was already well-known when Airheads came out, neither Sandler nor Fraser
00:39were the heavyweights that they would later become.
00:42Fraser's first box office success wouldn't come until 1997 with George of the Jungle,
00:46and Sandler was still a year away from releasing Billy Madison, his breakthrough movie.
00:50While Sandler was a regular fixture on Saturday Night Live, he didn't have enough star power
00:54to attract large numbers of moviegoers, and a wave of negative reviews likely didn't help
00:59Airheads either.
01:00What's more, Airheads launched when metal music had become unfashionable.
01:04Grunge was the popular genre at the time, making it harder to market the film to a wide
01:07audience.
01:08It grossed just $5.7 million at the U.S. box office and, with a reported budget of $11
01:13million, became known as a flop.
01:16Airheads went on to become something of a cult hit in metal circles, but was otherwise
01:19lost to history.
01:22Sandler was in high demand after Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore proved that he was capable
01:25of fronting a big-screen comedy.
01:27His next project was a collaboration with Damon Wayans, where the duo teamed up for
01:31a buddy cop action comedy called Bulletproof, which was basically an attempt to create a
01:35funnier version of Lethal Weapon.
01:37However, while Lethal Weapon was a big hit, Bulletproof became a box office misfire.
01:41Have you been drinking, sir?
01:44I had about a half a beer, but the dog had a lot.
01:50Bulletproof follows Sandler's Archie Moses, a drug dealer who is unaware that his friend
01:53and colleague Jack Carter is actually an undercover cop.
01:57Following a mishap that sees Moses shoot Carter, the two end up on a cross-country journey
02:00to testify in court, all while being pursued by a drug lord.
02:04The film reportedly cost around $25 million to make, but it couldn't even get back that
02:08amount, falling in just $22 million worldwide.
02:11The film's failure wasn't a huge surprise considering its reviews.
02:15It was lambasted by critics and is regarded as one of Adam Sandler's worst movies.
02:20In fact, only Jack and Jill and the Ridiculous Six have lower scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
02:25The general consensus is that the film wasn't sure what it wanted to be.
02:28It wasn't funny enough to be a hit comedy, and the action scenes weren't exciting enough
02:32to entice adrenaline junkies.
02:35Written by Adam Sandler and longtime collaborator Tim Herlihy, Little Nicky sees Sandler play
02:39the kind-hearted son of the devil.
02:41Sensing that none of his sons are ready to take over the rule of hell, Satan extends
02:44his reign, much to the anger of his two other sons.
02:48When they revolt and head to Earth to cause chaos and establish a new hell, Nicky is sent
02:52by Satan to put a stop to his brother's plans.
02:54Little Nicky is among Sandler's biggest financial failures, mainly because the film was so expensive
02:59to make.
03:00While it managed a worldwide box office gross of $58 million, it had a production budget
03:05of $80 million.
03:07That made it incredibly hard for the film to be a financial hit, given the amount of
03:10tickets it would have to sell.
03:12Little Nicky also had a disastrous reception from critics, and it also faced competition
03:16from another Satan-inspired movie in the form of the Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley
03:20comedy romance Bedazzled, which was released just a month earlier.
03:24The fact that Sandler's character was plain annoying was the nail in this film's coffin.
03:28I've always dreamt about having sex with a gross pig.
03:34Many people expected Punch-Drunk Love to be another triumph for Sandler, especially given
03:38it was written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.
03:42Sandler plays Barry Egan, a socially awkward and occasionally violent business owner who
03:46falls in love with Emily Watson's Lana Leonard.
03:49Their budding relationship faces a number of struggles, including an extortion attempt.
03:53Unlike the majority of Sandler's box office bombs, Punch-Drunk Love garnered favorable
03:57reviews from critics and was generally well-liked by those who saw it in cinemas.
04:02But it was also very different from the type of projects associated with Sandler.
04:05Sure, it proved that he could act, but it didn't appeal to his regular fanbase, which
04:09was a big reason it failed financially.
04:11Punch-Drunk Love also marked a different direction for Anderson.
04:14Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the respected filmmaker revealed that he set out to do something
04:18entirely different with the film.
04:20As he put it,
04:21I found like I'd become pretty good to a certain extent at my job.
04:24I wanted to scare myself.
04:26Unfortunately, both he and Sandler seemed to scare off fans of their other films.
04:31Adam Sandler was not known for animated fare when Eight Crazy Nights dropped in 2002.
04:36The movie follows Davy Stone, a man in his 30s who is constantly in trouble with the
04:40law.
04:41After dining and dashing, he is given one last chance at redemption and ordered to carry
04:45out community service under the watchful eye of basketball referee Whitey Duvall.
04:49Along the journey, Stone learns about the true meaning of Hanukkah.
04:52Sandler voices both characters, along with several others.
04:55Eight Crazy Nights reportedly costs $34 million to make, but it only grossed $23.5 million,
05:01and much of that is the result of the film just being plain terrible.
05:05It drew the ire of critics for a predictable story and bizarre product placements, as well
05:09as unfunny and outdated jokes.
05:12What's more, audiences had already seen a lot of Sandler in 2002, with the actor appearing
05:16in Punch Drunk Love and Mr. Deeds earlier that year.
05:19The holiday schedule that it dropped into was also highly competitive, which made making
05:22a profit even less likely.
05:24What's more, the film was made using traditional 2D animation in an era when CGI films were
05:29all the rage.
05:31Simple, hand-drawn animation seems quaint and old-fashioned next to the films being
05:34put out by Pixar and DreamWorks.
05:37James L. Brooks returned to the director's chair for 2004's Spanglish, seven years after
05:42his critically acclaimed dramedy As Good as It Gets.
05:45Adam Sandler stars as the patriarch of a well-off family that includes his overbearing wife
05:49and their two children.
05:50When the family heads to Malibu for the summer, they take along their Mexican housekeeper
05:53and her daughter.
05:54Much of the plot revolves around the interactions between the two families and how they differ,
05:58Though it certainly fared better than many of Sandler's other releases around that time,
06:03Spanglish didn't exactly set the world on fire in terms of critical reception.
06:07That goes some way to explaining why it bombed at the box office, making $55 million worldwide
06:12from a budget of $80 million.
06:14However, there were some other factors that contributed to its poor box office performance.
06:19What really made life difficult for Spanglish was the fact it came out amid a packed release
06:22schedule.
06:23Summer 2004 saw big hitters such as Meet the Fockers and Ocean's Twelve arrive in cineplexes,
06:29as well as family-friendly films such as A Series of Unfortunate Events and the Tom Hanks-led
06:33Christmas movie The Polar Express.
06:35This array of films ticked all the boxes for the type of moviegoer that might have otherwise
06:39opted to see Spanglish on the big screen.
06:42While he has comedic roots and is best known as a comedy performer, Sandler has shown over
06:47the years that he is a capable actor who is talented enough to lead a drama.
06:51Rate Over Me focuses on former college roommates who reunite and help each other through significant
06:55turning points in their lives.
06:57Despite having more critical success with his dramatic performances, these types of
07:01Adam Sandler films have never been a particularly big draw when it comes to audience numbers.
07:06And the same is true of this Mike Binder buddy drama.
07:09Despite Rate Over Me being a pretty good movie, it managed a worldwide gross of $22 million
07:13against a budget of $20 million, making it a failure after marketing and other costs
07:18were factored in.
07:19Perhaps the main reason the film failed to attract big viewer numbers is the subject
07:23matter.
07:24Sandler's Charlie is a man who is clearly struggling to process the fact that his wife
07:27and daughters were killed during the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
07:30Those events were still too fresh for many moviegoers, something Binder was well aware
07:35of.
07:36Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the risky movie, the director said,
07:38"...I don't believe in looking down and seeing how far the fall is to the ground, especially
07:43in this situation because that's what made it interesting to me.
07:45It was a story worth telling."
07:48On paper, the Adam Sandler film Funny People probably looked like a guaranteed hit.
07:52It was written and directed by Judd Apatow, and it features talented performers like Seth
07:56Rogen, Leslie Mann, and Jonah Hill.
07:59Yet it somehow failed to make a splash at the box office, bringing in $71.5 million
08:05against a production budget of $75 million.
08:07The main issue is that the film has an unusually dark and depressing tone for a comedy.
08:16The story revolves around Sandler's George Simmons, a movie star and stand-up comedian
08:20who has become disenchanted with the entertainment industry.
08:23Upon being diagnosed with cancer, he takes an interest in an inspiring comic while also
08:27attempting to re-evaluate his life and his relationships.
08:30In the end, moviegoers weren't sure if they were paying to see a comedy or a drama, which
08:34clearly impacted the overall takings.
08:36Limiting its audience further was a mighty running time of 146 minutes, typical for Judd
08:41Apatow but far longer than most comedies.
08:45That's My Boy is a film that follows the same basic structure as most Adam Sandler
08:49movies, in which the exact same things tend to happen, only the jokes are a lot more dirty
08:54than usual.
08:55It stars Sandler as Donnie Berger, an unemployed slacker who is on the verge of going to jail
08:59for debts owed to the IRS.
09:01His only way out is to reunite with his estranged son, Todd, who he fathered with a teacher
09:05while he was in school.
09:13Critical reception for That's My Boy was low, and that likely impacted the film's
09:17earning potential, but there was more to it than that.
09:20One of the major issues was that this 2012 movie was such a departure from Sandler's
09:23other comedies.
09:24It had a far raunchier plot and a bizarre premise that involves statutory rape, with
09:29a later twist throwing incest into an already problematic mix.
09:33It's not surprising that it underperformed at the box office, grossing just under $58
09:37million from a budget of $70 million.
09:41Sandler proved once again with That's My Boy that he doesn't have the same sort of
09:44box office sway with R-rated films as he does with his PG-13 releases.
09:50Directed by Jason Reitman and based on the Chad Coltgen novel of the same name, 2014's
09:54Men, Women, and Children was a box office disaster of epic proportions.
09:59Sandler is part of a talented ensemble cast that plays various characters in interconnected
10:02stories about families and individuals dealing with the internet and digital technology.
10:07The film's opening takings were the fifth worst ever based on a movie with a wide release,
10:12and it ended up grossing just $1.7 million worldwide.
10:15How did this happen?
10:16The star power was there, but the book was clumsily adapted for the screen, and the marketing
10:20campaign from Paramount was pretty much non-existent.
10:24Perhaps execs were relying on the names involved to get bums in seats, but that's never a good
10:28strategy.
10:29As BoxOffice.com's vice president and senior analyst Phil Contrino told The Wrap, it's
10:34a myth to say that people show up reflexively.
10:36Characters generate interest, but there has to be a story that people care about.
10:40Look at Tom Hanks in Cloud Atlas.
10:42He worked very hard to promote that movie, but it still wasn't enough.