Looking back, Little Nicky could well be the single most important movie of Adam Sandler‘s career despite it being his first, and still just one of his very few, star vehicles to bomb at the box office after failing to even reach the $60 million mark on an $85 million budget, while the reviews were pretty much as you’d expect.
However, the legacy of Little Nicky stretches much further than New Line Cinema taking a hefty financial hit on the project. Not only was it his first leading role under the newly-founded Happy Madison Productions banner, and only the company’s second effort overall after Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo had been released the year prior, but it also laid the foundations for the Adam Sandler Cinematic Universe.
Little Nicky was the first of The Sandman’s efforts to feature cameos from characters that had appeared in one of his previous films, and now almost every single Happy Madison movie boasts at least one appearance, callback or visual gag to set it in the same world as one of the outfit’s previous comedies.
It’s also become a firm favorite among Adam Sandler‘s legion of fans in the years since its release, so there are no doubt going to be some unhappy subscribers when it leaves the Netflix library next month on February 28th. Of course, this will likely be just a temporary measure as countless titles are removed from the platform before reappearing later down the line. And based on his remarkable consistency, the demonic comedy will probably rocket straight back into the Top 10 most-watched list whenever it eventually returns.
Besides, having spent the equivalent to over 200,000 years streaming his back catalogue, there are still plenty of Happy Madison titles for subscribers to choose from, even if Little Nicky is taking a brief vacation.
