Hollywood Breakdown
A crisis of comedies at the box office
The movie 'Late Night' written by and starring Mindy Kaling was the talk of Sundance, but its buzz at the box office has been significantly more muted.
By Matthew Belloni • • 4m ListenAmazon spent $13 million on the comedy 'Late Night' at Sundance, but it's first week of wide-release, the movie made only $5 million. That's bad news for Amazon, which ironically, could be part of the reason people are passing on comedies at the box office--Prime Video and other streamers like Netflix have trained people to expect easy entertainment at home. More and more, outings to the theater are reserved for big event-style movies. Streamers' constant comedy content--from rom coms to stand up specials--have changed the landscape. And while they've created perhaps more opportunities for writers and performers, the movie studios are now less likely to get behind a mid-budget comedy.
