Romantic comedies are pretty much a thing of the past, while comedies themselves aren't quite as common as they once were. A big part of the reason why is the fact that they struggle to make an impact at the box office, and when Seth Rogen spoke to GamesRadar to discuss his new HBO Max movie, An American Pickle, he explained how Marvel Studios movies are partly responsible for that.
"Something that me and Evan [Goldberg] talk about a lot is how Marvel movies are comedies," Rogen explains. "Thor: Ragnarok is a comedy. Ant-Man is a comedy at its core. So that's what's out there. There are $200 million comedies out there, and so that's something, as a comedic filmmaker, to be aware of. That is the benchmark that people expect!"
Rogen pointed out that he doesn't believe mid-size comedies are dying, and noted that the odd hit here and there (Neighbors, for example) is what keeps the genre going. However, he's also well aware of the threat a movie like Deadpool poses when it has such a huge budget.
"These huge budget films function like comedies," The Boys executive producer continues. "Audiences still love comedy, and they want that – Deadpool – but the scope of them is huge. So when you're not offering them that scope, you have to think, 'What am I offering them?' That's why something like Good Boys does well, because we're not offering scope. What we're offering is pure comedy and emotion and relatability and nostalgia. That's the trade-off."
It would be pretty amazing to see Rogen take a crack at one of these big budget superhero projects, and it's easy enough to imagine him appearing in or producing one sooner rather than later.
What do you guys think?
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