Happy Madison Productions, Inc. is an American film and television production company founded in 1999 by Adam Sandler, which is best known for its comedy films. Happy Madison takes its name from the films Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy, and distributed by Universal Pictures. In addition to various Sandler-produced films, the company has also released films produced by others, such as Steven Brill, Dennis Dugan, Frank Coraci, Fred Wolf, Tom Brady, Peter Segal, Nicholaus Goossen, and Tyler Spindel. The 1998 films The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer helped jump start Sandler's movie career and production company. He produced The Waterboy and co-wrote the script with Tim Herlihy. The film was extremely profitable, earning over $160 million in the United States alone and made Sandler a successful actor with The Waterboy becoming his second $100 million film in a year, along with The Wedding Singer. The company's production offices were formerly located in the Judy Garland Building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City but the company left after completion of Sandler's final contracted film for the studio, Pixels. Happy Madison, Inc., the parent company of Happy Madison Productions, is run by Adam Sandler's brother Scott, and is located in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 2002, the company expanded its operations onto television with a pilot commitment at The WB. After fifteen years, head Doug Robinson left the company to start its own at Sony Pictures Television. The company also had a short-lived subsidiary called Madison 23 Productions, which was aimed at the drama genre. It only produced two films: Reign Over Me and Funny People, both of which starred Sandler. Another subsidiary was Scary Madison Productions, which was aimed at the horror genre and only produced the film The Shortcut.

Filmography

Film

Television

Critical reception

Happy Madison's films have, for the most part, received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with most criticism targeted towards the crude humor, excessive product placement, celebrity cameos, and a sentimental ending that contradicts the film's mostly mean-spirited tone. Some drama films (Reign Over Me, Funny People, Hustle and You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah) received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with Sandler's performance garnering critical praise. The company has put out four films considered to be some of the worst ever made, while two other films have received a 0% score from Rotten Tomatoes.