Adam DeVine has made a career from being in some of the most popular comedy projects out there. From his breakthrough performance in the Pitch Perfect films, to his current role on HBO’s fan favorite series The Righteous Gemstones, the actor has become one of the funniest stars of the modern era. Despite being successful in the genre, he recently received backlash after claiming that the Marvel Cinematic Universe killed comedy. Now, he's clarifying his comments in an attempt to clear the air.
The actor went viral due to comments he made during an installment of Theo Von's This Past Weekend podcast. He surmised that "Marvel ruined" the landscape, because general audiences are now mostly drawn to films with massive budgets as opposed to mid-level comedies. MCU fans swiftly took offense to the notion that the superhero films had negatively impacted the genre. But the Workaholics alum doesn't seem to actually have a dislike of Disney's comic book franchises. He explained that he is a fan of the MCU but also sought to make a point. He took to X (formerly Twitter) to explain his position, saying:
As a guy who loves movies and tv it’s cool to be in Variety but this is misleading. I like Marvel and think these movies are cool. I was saying that studios (in trying to compete with Marvel) have stopped making mid budget comedies. I miss seeing comedy in the theaters!
Adam Devine makes a fair point and isn’t alone in having that opinion. Critics have been saying for years that the advent of “event films” like MCU movies has eliminated lower to mid-budget films at the box office, and there is certainly some truth to that. Despite an aggressive campaign, last year’s studio comedy Bros tanked at the box office, and many were surprised when the Jennifer Lawrence-led R-rated romp, No Hard Feelings, got a theatrical release this year. The latter did decent theatrical business, yet long gone are the days when movies like The Hangover and Bridesmaids saw massive openings. Now, these types of movies tend to end up on streaming services.
Marvel Studios alone may not be responsible but, for a while blockbuster superhero and franchise movies seemed to be the only films primarily doing great business. Martin Scorsese got a lot of flack for pointing this out and saying they take up a lot of screens at the theaters, not allowing smaller films to shine. The tide may be starting to turn, however, as Barbie and Oppenheimer are doing unexpectedly well in the theaters. Both are massive films, but they also represent original ideas crafted by auteurs. Meanwhile, big-ticket cape movies like Ant Man: Quantumania and The Flash saw major box office drops and failed to meet expectations. All in all, moviegoers seem to be becoming more discerning when it comes to what they watch at the theater.
Despite the lack of mid-budget comedies at cinema, Adam Devine has found a way to have a successful comedy career within the streaming world. He starred in the action comedy The Out-Laws this year, which had a Netflix release. He also produces and leads the Pitch Perfect spin-off, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin which is streaming for Peacock subscribers. The MCU didn’t ruin the existence of comedy, it just seems like it is happening somewhere else. And based on his latest comments, I guess Devine is just nostalgic for the Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates days.
You can catch Adam DeVine now on The Righteous Gemstones, which is streamable with a Max subscription. Movie fans looking for something new on the big screen, comedy or otherwise, should also check out our schedule of 2023 new movie releases.
