In 2005, WEDDING CRASHERS became one of the biggest success stories of the summer and the whole year. Made for $40 million, the comedy went on to gross $209.2 million at the domestic box office and critics dug it too with a solid 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film came out during the height of the powers of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and it also debuted as Rachel McAdams was blowing up after MEAN GIRLS and THE NOTEBOOK. Throw in some fun supporting turns from Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Christopher Walken, and Jane Seymour, you really have the perfect storm of comedic success. So why didn't we ever get a sequel?
Warner Bros. has been keen to get the gang back together pretty much since the film killed it at the box office back in 2005 but during an interview with "Collider" promoting his new Netflix comedy film, EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA, director David Dobkin explain why he, Wilson, and Vaughn keep turning Warner Bros. down for a WEDDING CRASHERS sequel:
"Everybody keeps hitting me up about a Wedding Crashers sequel. We don't have a script that we're there with yet. For many, many years every year I got offered to do a sequel, there were some big deals on the table. And none of us wanted to do a retread of the same movie again. Anything within those first years that we talked about was the same movie, and we were like, 'Why?' Financially I probably shouldn't have done that, but I did (laughs). And Vince and Owen didn't want to do it either."
Kudos to Dobkin and company for not doing a sequel for the sake of a money grab. Most sequels exist for that very reason and sometimes that reasoning isn't particularly kind to comedic sequels. ZOOLANDER 2, ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING, DUMB AND DUMBER TO and arguably, THE HANGOVER sequels are all poor imitations of their predecessors. I respect the fact why we haven't gotten a BRIDESMAIDS sequel is because all involved feel like it's not necessary. That being said, a few years ago, Dobkin says he hit upon an idea that would make a sequel worth doing but he cautions the idea is not quite there yet:
"10 years later, when I was asked again and I hung up the phone after saying no, I thought about it and I'm like, 'Well I'd be curious what it'd be like for guys in their late 40s who end up being single again and have to go back out in the world. What a weird, difficult, challenging story that is.' And as long as there's a real story in the middle of it, to me, it can be a movie."
While that could be a potentially fun idea, I still think it's best to leave the idea alone. WEDDING CRASHERS is probably one of the best comedies of the last 15 years and it still holds up today, A sequel isn't 100 percent necessary. In the film, a pair of committed womanizers sneak into weddings to take advantage of the romantic tinge in the air but they find themselves at odds one when one of them meets and falls in love with one of the women from a wedding they've recently chosen to crash.
Do YOU want a sequel to WEDDING CRASHERS or is it too little, too late?