The Business
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GROWN: COLUMBIA PICTURES/PHOTOFEST.DATES: PHOTOFEST. SANDLER: DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES FOR IFP.FilmIn contrast, Sandler was a stand-
up comedian who earned fans for
his Saturday Night Live characters
such as Opera Man and Canteen
Boy but did not seem destined for
stardom like contemporaries Dana
Carvey and Mike Myers. Pascal fell
hard for Sandler after seeing him
in The Wedding Singer. When Chris
Farley, who was set to star in a
Sony comedy as an underachieving
toll collector, suddenly died, she
turned to Sandler. Big Daddy was
a monster hit, grossing $235 mil-
lion worldwide. Unlike Smith,
Sandler didn’t have grand designs
for his career or carefully plotted
strategies for his company. He
was a smart but easygoing schlub
who had no pretensions about who
he was and why fans loved him.
“He wasn’t fancy, and he wasn’t a
dinner-party conversation guy. He
was more about the money,” said a
person close to the star.
Being prolific was the name of
the game. Between 2000 and
2015, Sandler starred in 24 movies
and produced an additional 13. He
proved can’t-miss in one dumb but
endearing comedy after another.
Mr. Deeds, Anger Management, 50
First Dates and others all grossed
more than $170 million worldwide.
Smith was more strategic,
starring in 15 films and produc-
ing an additional seven during
the same period. After Ali, Smith
starred in two sequels that Pascal
badly wanted, Men in Black II and
Bad Boys II. He then proved his
romantic-comedy bona fides with
Hitch, his ability to draw big audi-
ences to an inspirational drama
with The Pursuit of Happyness and
his appeal in an original super-
hero film with Hancock.
Sony paid both stars handsomely
for their consistent success:
$20 million against 20 percent of
the gross receipts, whichever
was higher, was their standard.
They also received as much as
$5 million against 5 percent
for their production companies,
where they employed family
and friends. Sony also provided
Overbrook and Sandler's Happy
Madison with a generous
overhead to cover expenses
— worth about $4 million per
year. To top it off, Sandler and
Smith enjoyed the perks of
the luxe studio life. Flights on a
corporate jet were common. Onoccasion, Smith’s entourage
necessitated the use of two jets
for travel to premieres. Knowing
that Sandler was a huge sports
fan, Sony regularly sent him and
his pals to the Super Bowl to do
publicity. Back at the Sony lot, the
basketball court was renamed
Happy Madison Square Garden in
the star’s honor. When anybody
questioned the endless indul-
gence given to Sandler and Smith,
Sony executives had a standard
answer: “Will and Adam bought
our houses.”
Sony wasn’t unique in the perks
it provided to talent. Warner Bros.
had vacation villas in Acapulco
and Aspen that stars could fly to
on a corporate jet, and Universal
had a custom-designed Tuscan
villa. But Sony was consistently
among the biggest spenders.
An internal analysis by the studio
found that from 2007 through
2012, it spent 13.5 percent more on
“above the line” costs — industry
jargon for key creative talent —
than other studios.
The star business went
south for Sony Pictures start-
ing in 2012. Many at the studio
were already embarrassed by
2011’s Jack and Jill, a comedy that
was insipid even by Sandler’s
standards; in the film, he played
a man and his twin sister. Sony
executives didn’t want to make
it, but it was virtually impossible
to say no to one of their biggest
stars. It earned Sandler the worst
reviews of his career (the Rotten
Tomatoes rating was 3 percent)
and was his lowest-grossing com-
edy since the bomb Little Nicky
in 2000. Still, it grossed $150 mil-
lion globally and wasn’t a complete
disaster. That fate was reserved
for his next movie: That’s My Boy,
the 2012 movie that featured
Andy Samberg as the adult son
of a middle-aged loser played
by Sandler. The $70 million pro-
duction — a ridiculous cost for
a comedy that reflected the star’s
still-huge paycheck — was a box-
office bomb and lost $42.5 million.
That same year, Smith returned
to the big screen after a hiatus
following 2008’s surprise disap-
pointment, Seven Pounds. He
starred in a sequel, Men in Black 3,
that Sony had been dying to make.
Now used to being the dominant
creative force in his productions,JOE DIRT | 2001
$43.4M$195.7M$196.5M$55M$45.1M$199.9M$214.9M$246.9M$107.6M$244.8M$2.5M$119.7M$57.7MTHE ANIMAL | 2001
0 50 100 150 200 $250MAdam Sandler and Sony:
2000-2015$84.7M$30.9M$171.3MMR. DEEDS | 2002
THE MASTER OF DISGUISE | 2002
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE | 2002
ANGER MANAGEMENT | 2003
50 FIRST DATES | 2004
SPANGLISH | 2004
DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO | 2005
THE BENCHWARMERS | 2006
CLICK | 2006
REIGN OVER ME | 2007
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY | 2007
THE HOUSE BUNNY | 2008
PAUL BLART: MALL COP | 2009
GROWN UPS | 2010
JUST GO WITH IT | 2011
BUCKY LARSON: BORN TO BE A STAR | 2011
THAT'S MY BOY | 2012
PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 | 2015
GROWN UPS 2 | 2013
PIXELS | 2015
$24.6M$64.9M$22.2M$70.4M$183.2MJACK AND JILL | 2011
$271.4M$237.7MDomestic
InternationalDomestic
InternationalDomestic
InternationalPRODUCED + STARRED IN STARRED IN PRODUCED
Mr. Deeds was the
first of eight comedies
starring Sandler that
grossed more than
$170 million between
2002 and 2011.← Sandler, in
2010’s Grown
Ups, was “about
the money,”
said one friend of
the star known
for his lowbrow
comedies.Jack and Jill
earned Sandler
his lowest
Rotten Tomatoes
rating ever:
3 percent fresh.To keep the budget for
Pixels at $110 million,
Sandler took
$5 million (plus a big
cut of any profits),
his lowest paycheck
since the ’90s.Source: Box Office Mojo