Since first inking an exclusive deal with Netflix, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions has conspired to churn out no less than 13 feature films in eight years, and things have been about as inconsistent as you’d expect from the polarizing funnyman ever since.
On the plus side, there was nowhere to go but uphill after The Ridiculous Six kicked off the arrangement by securing a zero percent Rotten Tomatoes score, but there could be change afoot now that Sandler has lent his name to the two best-reviewed entries in his entire filmography just 14 months apart.
Following on from Hustle netting a remarkable 92 percent approval rating on the aggregation site last year, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah has fared even better after rising to an unprecedented – for Happy Madison, at least – 95 percent. Prior to those pair of acclaimed originals, the best the Sandman’s outfit had ever fared on Netflix was the 52 percent of Hubie Halloween, just to give you an inkling of how rare this development is.
In addition, the coming-of-age dramedy has done what every Sandler film does by debuting as the number one most-watched title among subscribers in the United States, while it arrived as the third top-viewed on a worldwide level after being welcomed onto the Top 10 in 65 countries around the world, per FlixPatrol.
It may have taken him 30 years, but Sandler starring in and producing two genuinely great films in the span of barely more than a year marks a career first, and fingers crossed it won’t be the last.