At one point in time, studios were producing comedy films left and right. As recently as the 2000s, comedy films dominated the box office, and even if they didn’t, they were often able to recoup their budgets through home video rentals and purchases. Since the mid-2010s, production of theatrical comedy films has gradually declined. Today, most comedies are released directly on streaming services, and the only way to laugh in the theater is seemingly through action films that incorporate humor. Recently, there has been growing awareness of the lack of theatrical comedies, and over the past two years, a few attempts have been made to release theatrical comedy films, with varying degrees of critical and box-office success. Is the theatrical comedy film making a comeback, or is the genre gone for good? 

Before I go any further, I want to clarify up front that the purpose of this blog post is not to lament the current state of the film industry. There are plenty of other blogs where you can find that. I am a fan of Hollywood and always root for its success. However, there is absolutely a throughline between the decline of theatrically released comedy films and some of the industry trends that have been taking place in Hollywood over the past ten years. One of these trends is the rise of legacy sequels, remakes, and reboots. Audiences have grown tired of the constant reboots of classic films, leading many to believe that Hollywood suffers from a perceived “creative bankruptcy” or inability to develop original ideas. Now, this is clearly not entirely true. Original films are released in theaters all the time, though with varying degrees of success. It is no secret that the movie industry has taken a significant hit in box office attendance in recent years, and many people are quick to blame the rise of legacy sequels and reboots, among other factors. Let’s examine how the reboot trend has affected the comedy film genre.

 Last summer, the Seth MacFarlane-produced The Naked Gun was released, a reboot of the iconic Naked Gun trilogy from the late 1980s and early 90s. Directed by Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer and starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, the promotion for The Naked Gun leaned heavily on Hollywood’s lack of theatrical comedies. One promotional advertisement for the film was a PSA style commercial featuring Neeson urging moviegoers to buy a ticket as a means to “save” the comedy genre. The advertisement serves not just as a promotion for 2025’s The Naked Gun, but also as a love letter to comedy films of the past, and the experience of laughing in the theater. Comedy fans such as myself were very excited to see the movie, as it represented a chance to bring comedy films back to the big screen. The Naked Gun received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $100 million on a $42 million budget. Even with the critical and commercial success, the response from studios so far has not been to continue to release comedies in theaters, with many commentators pointing out that the film was both a reboot of an existing comedy franchise and an action comedy, which may have helped bring in viewers who want to see action-packed set pieces in theaters. 2025’s The Naked Gun was a successful outing for theatrical comedies, and studios did not seem to learn from it.

Released a few months after The Naked Gun, another comedy film hit theaters in 2025 with the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Released in September 2025, Spinal Tap II is, of course, the sequel to the classic Rob Reiner-directed comedy This Is Spinal Tap, released in 1984. This Is Spinal Tap is often credited with popularizing both the mockumentary genre and improvisation-based comedies, which became very prevalent in the 2000s as comedy directors such as Judd Apatow and Adam McKay produced many improvisation-based comedy films, most of which are considered modern-day comedy classics. Spinal Tap II was able to bring back the stars of the first film, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Rob Reiner, who also returned to direct. I personally enjoyed Spinal Tap II, as did many fans of the original, who found it funny and a faithful follow-up to the original. The film did fairly well with critics, scoring a 66% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film, however, was unfortunately not a financial success, likely because it was a legacy sequel released forty one years after its predecessor. 

And then that brings us to the summer of 2026 with the release of Scary Movie. The sixth film in the Scary Movie franchise, this long-awaited sequel saw the return of the Wayans family and most of the cast from the original two Scary Movie films. The promotion for this movie revolved heavily around nostalgia and the “no holds barred” image the film was trying to convey. One of the promotional taglines for Scary Movie 2026 was “There are no safe spaces,” a clear jab at the perceived sensitivities of modern-day audiences toward comedy. Scary Movie was a box-office success, earning over $200 million, but was heavily panned by critics and seen as a disappointment by most fans of the franchise. Many audiences saw the humor as too focused on appearing “edgy” or “politically incorrect,” rather than original and funny. There was a lot of hype surrounding Scary Movie in the months leading up to its release, with many talking about it the same way The Naked Gun was discussed last summer, as a potential way to show Hollywood that audiences are hungry for laughs. In the months since its polarizing reception, the film has widely fallen out of discussion.

Hollywood is not making good-faith attempts to bring comedy back to theaters. In the last two years, we have seen Hollywood reboot classic comedy franchises, then fail to acknowledge their success or make attempts to add more comedy. Comedy films are still seeing success, often going straight to streaming, where movies such as Netflix’s Happy Gilmore 2 (another legacy sequel) scored high viewership. This year will also see AppleTV release a new sports comedy, The Dink, starring Jake Johnson and Ben Stiller, with Stiller also producing. The Dink is an upcoming comedy film about pickleball, and as a fan of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, I am intrigued to see Stiller make another “obscure sports” comedy. Still, I would have liked to see a studio give the film a shot at a theatrical release. Another potential reason for the decline of comedy films is also that comedy shows, mainly the sitcom genre, have also fallen out of favor, and “dramedies” have gradually taken their place (but that is a topic for a different blog). The originality factor is definitely at play in whether comedy has a chance of returning to theaters. The romantic comedy Anyone But You, starring Glenn Powell and Sydney Sweeney, was released in 2023, harkening back to the romantic comedies popular in the 2000s, and it was a success, grossing $220 million against a $25 million budget. That same year, the Jennifer Lawrence-led No Hard Feelings was moderately successful at the box office. Again, the success of these movies did not prompt studios to consider producing mid-budget comedy films. This year, The Backrooms and Obsession, two independently made horror films, have dominated the box office and are already making their way into the recent cultural zeitgeist. This success stems from word of mouth and from being produced on smaller budgets, similarly to how comedy films found their success in the decades prior. Perhaps that is the route comedy will have to take to be prevalent in theaters again.

If studios are serious about bringing back theatrical comedies, they need to make an actual effort to do so. Legacy sequels and reboots to beloved classic comedies are simply not enough to get newer audiences excited about laughing in the theater. Box office returns have been low across the board in recent years across all genres, including superhero movies. If studios commit to making original comedies, with reasonable budgets and well-thought-out marketing campaigns, we could see a resurgence in theatrically released comedy films.