Comedy

Who doesn't love a good laugh? There is nothing better than a great comedy to brighten up your day and that's why the genre is still one of the most popular. Whether it's brilliantly crafted TV shows or blockbuster movies that have us heading to the cinema in our millions, good comedy will always triumph.

If we needed further evidence of their star power, the lead actors in both Friends and The Big Bang Theory were paid $1m per episode. That makes them the highest-paid TV actors in history.

Such is the enduring power of a solid comedy that even today, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max has paid a whopping $425 million for the streaming rights to Friends and $600 million for The Big Bang Theory. But also up there for worldwide viewing figures is Modern Family. Finishing one year after The Big Bang Theory, it ran for 250 episodes and is still binge-watched on Netflix today.

But the success of the TV sitcom has been around for decades. From the days of 1970s hits M*A*S*H, and Happy Days to the 80s with Cheers, and Roseanne. The baton was passed to Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends, and Everybody Loves Raymond in the 90s before the likes of The Middle, The Office, and 30 Rock in the 2000s. But what now that the big hitters have wrapped up their shows?

Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV+ have all tried their hand at sitcoms but none with the success of the mainstream studios. Still, we wait and hope for another laugh-out-loud comedy TV show to come along and make us all feel warm and fuzzy.

Comedy Films are some of the most successful anywhere in the world. Feel-good movies will always win out but it may surprise you to know that it's actually very difficult to figure out which are the best performing at the box office. That is because the top movies are dominated by Animated features like The Secret Life Of Pets or Minions. However, with a bit of digging it looks like The Hangover Part II (2011) takes the top spot earning $586,464,305.

That is followed by Ted (2012) on $549,368,315 and Meet the Fockers (2004) on $522,657,936. In fact, you'll be hard-pressed to find an outright comedy that has really topped the box office since 2013. The exceptions, depending on how you categorise them, are Deadpool and Deadpool 2 which netted a staggering $1.5 billion between them.

So where have all the comedies gone? Online, that's where. With the likes of Netflix signing all the biggest players in Hollywood, a large chunk of the big hitters fall into the comedy category. Take Adam Sandler as an example. Having signed two deals with the streaming giant (rumoured to be worth $245m each), his films, which would have headed to the cinema, are now streamable worldwide in an instant. In fact, his offering Murder Mystery was watched by 73 million households in its first four weeks of release. Even Hubie Halloween ranked as 2020s most popular Netflix original movie in the United States.

But Sandler isn't to everybody's tastes which is why there's a sub-genre to suit everybody. Did you know you can watch anything from ‘absurd comedies' to ‘witty comedies' and even comedies about ‘reluctant adults'? Yes, really. It may also explain the lack of box office receipts as comedies tend to have a specific audience. Unlike animated features or action flicks, certain comedies will appeal to niche demographics and when your target market is smaller, so too are the ticket sales!