Netflix Paid An Absurd Amount Of Money For Happy Gilmore 2 - Was It Worth It?

Nearly 30 years after the original film helped cement Adam Sandler as a cinematic comedy superstar, "Happy Gilmore 2" is enjoying a rather healthy run on Netflix. Released in July, the sequel has been riding high in the streamer's top 10 charts ever since its release, and it even earned the highest weekly movie viewership in the history of Nielsen's top 10 rankings (via The Wrap). That would seemingly make it an automatic success. However, the budget for the movie was recently revealed, and it adds a pretty hefty asterisk to the endeavor.

According to New Jersey Business Magazine, Netflix spent a whopping $152.5 million on the production, which was filmed throughout New Jersey. It was previously thought that director Kyle Newacheck's comedy was much, much cheaper. That is an eye-melting number, but it's also one that requires a whole lot of context before we can even begin to answer the whole "was it worth it" part of the conversation.

The figure comes from The New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission and, more importantly, "Happy Gilmore 2" qualified for New Jersey Economic Development Authority's Film and Digital Media Tax Credit Program. These tax credit programs are commonly used by governments to entice film production. It's why Marvel Studios has been filming so many projects (like "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania") in the U.K. as of late. More to the point, the NJEDA needs accurate numbers to give Netflix the earned tax credit, so that $152.5 million figure is genuine.

Without getting into the ins and outs of the tax credit system for productions, essentially, it helps studios offset costs. According to NJ.gov, the state offers eligible productions between 30% and 35%. If Sandler's long-awaited, star-studded sequel was able to offset that budget by 30%, that would bring it down to about $107 million. If it was closer to 35%, that number drops to around $99 million. That's also not accounting for any marketing costs, nor is it accounting for any money that Netflix spent outside of New Jersey on the production.

Even on the generous, low end of the spectrum, $100 million is a tremendous amount of money to spend on a broad comedy, especially when we consider that the original "Happy Gilmore" cost just $12 million to make. Even adjusted for inflation, that would only be around $25 million in today's dollars. But Netflix generated $37.5 billion in revenue last year, so it has the money to spend. Still, we must now circle back to the question: Was it worth it?

In streaming, that's always a complicated question because the only metric we truly have to go on is viewership. As of this writing, "Happy Gilmore 2" has spent four weeks in the streamer's global top 10, surpassing 100 million total hours of viewing, despite plenty of poor reviews. That's nowhere near Netflix's all time top 10, which would require passing "Damsel" (253 million hours). As we speak, "KPop Demon Hunters" is on the verge of becoming Netflix's most-watched movie ever with far less star power on a similar investment.

But Sandler has thrived on Netflix, with his movies regularly performing very well on the service. As comedies have struggled to stay relevant at the box office, the actor has found a home on streaming. To that end, stars like Sandler would normally get a cut of the box office on a theatrical movie. But since Netflix and other streamers don't pay much by way of royalties, that means everyone needs to be paid up front, which greatly inflates the cost. Not only Sandler, but everyone else in the sequel's massive cast, including everyone from Benny Safdie to pro golfer John Daly. That doesn't come cheap.

The only ones who can truly tell us if this was worth it would be the executives at Netflix. What we can say, however, is this investment at least resulted in a big hit, which is never guaranteed. Just look at "Heart of Stone," a poorly reviewed Gal Gadot Netflix action flick (one that many people have probably never heard of) that reportedly cost $150 million. Or equally expensive Netflix bets like "Red Notice" and "The Gray Man," neither of which have yet to receive the sequel that was promised at one point. Viewed through that lens, Netflix would almost certainly call this a success, despite the eye-popping price tag.

"Happy Gilmore 2" is now streaming on Netflix.