A $23.4 million opening weekend for what had been widely billed as the major comedy event of the summer seemed a tepid shrug of a reaction, and certainly not in line with the expectations and media buzz preceding it. But it won the weekend, however weak the competition was, and there remained room to suggest that a more serious, challenging Judd Apatow comedy would need time to catch on, and could become a long-player with solid word-of-mouth. But last weekend, down 65% to less than $8 million, serves as a nail in its coffin, business-wise. To put that in perspective, The Hangover opened to twice as much and fell only 27% and 18% in its next two frames, and hasn’t fallen more than 36% in any of its ten weeks in release. It’s one of Adam Sandler’s worse openings and will surely be one of his lowest grossers. The superstar marriage of Hollywood’s most reliable comic star and Apatow’s new school crew of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and company turned out to be irrelevant in any mass entertainment or cultural sense. A disappointing non-hit, yet probably too big and broad to ever be hip again.

One could tangent off in several directions trying to explain.  Is this a specific rebuke of the Apatow brand, following an oversaturation of his produced efforts during the past two years? Do audiences hammered by depressed economic conditions only want to spend their dwindling discretionary dollars on escapist fare? The runaway success of a thundering dud Transformers sequel and the welcome reception to a terrible-buzz G.I. Joe flick that everyone knew was going to suck but a great many saw anyway suggest that may be the case. J.J. Abrams’ glitzy Star Trek reboot is representative of what has taken off at the box office this year: fun, bright, but empty. Any more serious attempt to delve into the intellectual side of the old Trek in addition to the abundant nostalgic kick would have bogged down its prospects.

Maybe Funny People the movie isn’t too dour. Most of us wouldn’t know anyway, as comparably few saw it. Perhaps more to the point, it’s the marketing that dropped the ball. The restrained trailers and ads seemed content to apply a very soft sell, coasting on pedigree and providing jarringly few funny examples of these funny folks’ funniness. There was an ironic potential to that juxtaposition of blunt comedic title and downbeat tone that clearly didn’t take hold. No clear concept or vibe was established by the mystifying ads, something the ones for this year’s comedic smashes both funny (The Hangover) and shitty (Paul Blart) did well. Sandler was front and center, but it wasn’t the agreeably goofy schlub Sandler that fans embrace. Was Rogen a star here or just doing an extended cameo? That confusion hurts, because it was names being sold over premise. To be fair, a 2 1/2 hour dramedy about mortality presents a challenge to any marketing department. But in this case it felt like no massaging whatsoever was done. Showing random clips would have had the same effect this big studio campaign for a $75 million comedy did.

I haven’t written about the movie itself yet, because we have an excellent piece up by flacktard centered around Sandler’s performance, and I really don’t have a whole lot to say. He connected with it much more acutely. I haven’t been a fan of any of Apatow’s directorial efforts, and Funny People didn’t exactly make me one. It’s bloated and plodding and some of it sticks and a lot of it doesn’t, but I will say that it’s far and away his most mature, probing attempt. There is an incisive quality to how it captures the duality of the torment and insecurity present in nearly every good comic’s psyche, especially stand-ups. Sandler is better than decent and anchors the movie over some rough, draggy patches. It’s disappointing that every time he embraces growth as an actor, audiences give him the cold shoulder ($19 million for Reign Over Me, $42 million total for the $90 million budgeted Spanglish, $18 million for Punch-Drunk Love), and doesn’t net much street cred. Why would he at this point do anything but more  Zohans and Chuck & Larrys?

Nothing funny about that.

Source: Box office totals from Box Office Mojo