What Happened to SNL Movies?

Summary

• SNL
  movies peaked in the ’90s with hits like
  Wayne’s World
  . Recent films like
  MacGruber
  haven’t fared as well financially.
• As studios move away from theatrical comedies,
  SNL
  stars are finding success on the small screen with TV shows.
• The days of
  SNL
  launching movie star careers may be fading, with actors like Pete Davidson now finding TV success.

Live from the big screen, it’s the Saturday Night Live movies! In its nearly 50-year history, NBC’s iconic sketch comedy series has seen several hit sketches jump to the film world. Some have seen massive success (Wayne’s World, Wayne’s World 2, and The Blues Brothers). Others have returned with less-than-stellar results (nearly every other movie).

There is no doubt that the ’90s were the peak of SNL and SNL movies. From 1992 to 2000, roughly one new film was released per year. SNL took the 2000s off before returning with the 2010 film MacGruber, the most recent SNL movie to date. It seems like the days of SNL acting as a launching pad for a feature film career may be coming to an end. Instead, several stars have pivoted to the small screen, headlining comedies on NBC and Peacock. SNL head honcho Lorne Michaels hitches his name to the wagon as an EP on several of these projects, so is TV the future? And could we ever see Saturday Night Live return to the big screen?

A Sad History of Saturday Night Live Movies

SNL first made the jump to the big screen with the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. It was a critical and commercial hit, still enjoying cult status today nearly 45 years later. With the early seasons having countless iconic sketches, it’s surprising that none of them also made it into theaters. Instead, the next movie came in 1992 with Wayne’s World. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s outing also boasted rave reviews and grossed the most of any SNL film.

Then came the rest of the decade. The ’90s gave us Coneheads, Wayne’s World 2, It’s Pat, Stuart Saves His Family, Blues Brothers 2000, A Night at the Roxbury, Superstar, and The Ladies Man. Just three of these (Wayne’s World 2, Roxbury, and Superstar) made back their budget, though none could really be considered profitable. Wayne’s World 2 was also the sole entry that scored higher than 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, at 61%. Most others sit in the lower middle, between 30% and 50%. Roxbury and The Ladies Man fell hard into “rotten” territory, each at 11%. Then there’s It’s Pat, earning that elusive perfect score of 0% and grossing a paltry $60,000 against an $8 million budget. With a track record like that, taking a break seems understandable.

After ten years away, SNL returned to the silver screen with MacGruber in 2010, starring Will Forte. It also did not make back its budget, hovering around 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite that stellar improvement, the SNL film factory again closed up shop. Some consider 2023’s Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain to be an SNL film, as the titular comedy troupe are writers who regularly appear in their own series of sketches on the show. However, it’s not based on one specific sketch like all the others on this list.

The Decline of Theatrical Comedies as a Whole

While it’s true that five-minute sketches rarely translate into feature-length stories, SNL does not shoulder all the blame here. Studio comedies, in general, have been on the decline over the last decade. It was a rapid shift, as movies like Bridesmaids, The Hangover series, and 21 Jump Street saw huge critical and box office success in the 2010s. What changed? Mainly, the attitudes of filmgoers, especially with straight-to-streaming releases changing what audiences are willing to pay for in the theaters. When one of the numerous streamers puts out a comedy that doesn’t require purchasing a theater ticket, most viewers will opt for that selection.

Comedies can still be successful if they have a big-ticket star attached. Also, movies that blend two or more genres, such as action and comedy or romance and comedy, see better results. As our culture has gotten more socially aware over the last decade, the jokes that audiences find acceptable have changed. Look at any 2000s comedy, and you can make an entire listicle of “moments that did not age well.”

SNL Went From Movie Stars to TV Stars

In the days of yore (the ’90s and ’00s), the natural stepping stone for an actor post-SNL was the movies. Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, and Kristen Wiig, among many others, graduated from their sketch comedy beginnings to become some of the biggest movie stars on the planet. But in the last 10 years, SNL hasn’t put out the same number of talent. This is no shade on the current cast, of course, but it’s clear that things have changed. Pete Davidson and Kate McKinnon, in particular, have enjoyed significant success after SNL, but it’s becoming increasingly rare.

The track from SNL to movie star seems to be a relic of the past. Instead, cast members are turning to headline their own small screen TV series. Tina Fey hit it huge with 30 Rock, while Amy Poehler delivered on Parks and Recreation. Maya Rudolph and Martin Short had a brief sketch show of their own in 2016, and Will Forte revisited his MacGruber roots for a limited series follow-up in 2021. Pete Davidson also played his most iconic role – himself – in 2023’s Bupkis.

Over the last few years, Lorne Michaels has also exhibited more flexibility in allowing cast members to work on other series while they’re still members of SNL. Of course, it helps that he executive produces them all. Fred Armisen was on Portlandia for his final few seasons as a cast member in the early 2010s, while Cecily Strong juggled SNL and Schmigadoon! in 2021 and 2022.

Aidy Bryant had Shrill, and even SNL legend Kenan Thompson managed his own self-titled sitcom for two seasons. Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che took his comedy chops to That Damn Michael Che, which featured guest spots from fellow SNL alums like Strong, Thompson, Heidi Gardner, and co-anchor Colin Jost. So, will we see another SNL movie? In the near future, likely not. Big-budget comedy films are out, and straight-to-streaming television is in. Wayne’s World, arguably the most successful SNL film, is streaming on Paramount+.