Vince Vaughn reveals why Hollywood does not make R-rated comedies

Vince Vaughn believes that Hollywood executives are too cautious and overanalyse the development of R-rated comedies, a genre he helped popularise with hits like Wedding Crashers, Old School, and Swingers.

In a recent appearance on Hot Ones, Vaughn expressed his thoughts on why films like these are no longer being made, suggesting that executives are too risk-averse.

“They [execs] just overthink it,” Vaughn told host Sean Evans “And it’s like, it’s crazy, you get these rules, like, if you did geometry, and you said 87 degrees was a right angle, then all your answers are messed up, instead of 90 degrees. So there became some idea or concept, like, they would say something like, ‘You have to have an IP.’”

The comedian used the board game Battleship as an example of how Hollywood often relies on recognisable names, rather than meaningful ideas, to drive storytelling.

He contrasted this approach with his early experiences in Hollywood, where he drew inspiration from shared life experiences and relatable situations, such as the premise of his 2003 film Old School, which follows friends navigating college life as adults.

Vaughn suggested that this authentic, experience-based storytelling is being replaced by a focus on established intellectual properties (IPs) like Battleship.

“The people in charge don’t want to get fired more so than they’re looking to do something great, so they want to kind of follow a set of rules that somehow get set in stone, that don’t really translate,” Vaughn continued. 

“But as long as they follow them, they’re not going to lose their job because they can say, ’Well, look, I made a movie off the board game Payday so even though the movie didn’t work, you can’t let me go, right?’”

The Bad Monkey star, nevertheless, is optimistic about the future and said he expected to see more R-rated comedies on screen.

“People want to laugh, people want to look at stuff that feels a little bit like it’s, you know, dangerous or pushing the envelope,” Vaughn explained. 

“I think you’re going to see more of it in the film space sooner than later, would be my guess.”