Adam Sandler's $1.38 Billion Franchise Is Officially Returning, But There's A Catch

While one of Adam Sandler’s biggest franchises is coming back in 2027, it is not yet clear whether the star himself will return for the latest outing of the iconic series. When the phrase “Bankable movie star” comes up in conversation, there are a few A-list icons who inevitably warrant a mention. Will Smith has historically been one of Hollywood’s most reliable hitmakers, as has Tom Cruise, while Margot Robbie’s success in the last decade has singled her out in box office history.

While all of these stars might have a few flops, from Cruise’s failed reboot of The Mummy movies to Robbie’s 2022 Oscar-hopeful Babylon, their consistent popularity overrides these wobbles. Brad Pitt is one of the few stars who could release a $540 million horror movie, so the fact that he, too, starred in Babylon isn’t as big a concern as it would be for a smaller emerging star. However, one name that rarely comes up in these conversations, even though it should, is Adam Sandler.

The Hollywood funnyman first rose to prominence with a string of critically hated but commercially successful cult classic comedies in the '90s, including Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy. The 2000s saw Sandler branch out into acclaimed dramas like Punch-Drunk Love while becoming an even bigger box office draw with hit comedies like Mr. Deeds, 50 First Dates, Click, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. However, it was the 2010s that gave Sandler his biggest box office successes with the Grown Ups and Hotel Transylvania franchises.

How Hotel Transylvania Quietly Became An Animated Juggernaut

While the former was a gross-out family comedy that earned $272 million globally, the latter was an animated children’s movie that proved a truly massive breakout hit for Sandler. 2012’s original Hotel Transylvania earned a whopping $358 million while its 2015 sequel, Hotel Transylvania 2, outdid this with an even bigger take of $474 million. 2017’s third movie, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, is Samberg’s biggest box office hit to date, with a staggering $528 million.

Although this billion-dollar franchise made Adam Sandler one of Hollywood’s best-paid actors ever, the star made the intriguing choice to bow out of the fourth installment in the series, 2022’s Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. Although fellow A-listers Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg returned as the daughter of Sandler’s Count Dracula and her love interest, respectively, Sandler himself was replaced by the soundalike Brian Hull.

While there is now a fifth movie, titled The Haunting of Hotel Transylvania, scheduled for release in October 2027, it is not yet clear if Sandler will return to the role after sitting out the last movie. Currently, the only upcoming projects listed on the star’s IMDb page are Grown Ups 3, an untitled Safdie Brothers movie, and Time Out, a remake of the 2001 French thriller of the same name by Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere director Scott Cooper.

Adam Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania Franchise Exit Didn’t Hurt The Series (Yet)

Sandler’s absence from Hotel Transylvania: Transformania was explained via scheduling conflicts, as the actor had a lot of Netflix movies and shows in the works around 2022. It is tough to tell whether the movie’s performance was hurt by the star’s absence, as its planned theatrical release was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the sequel instead became the first of the series to be released on Prime Video.

As such, Hotel Transylvania 5’s performance will tell a tale. If the sequel fails to bring back Sandler, it might struggle to reach the career-high financial success of 2017’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, the last and biggest theatrical release in the franchise. However, if the fifth movie in the Hotel Transylvania franchise earns a theatrical release and proves a hit, this could be seen as evidence that Sandler himself was never the franchise’s main draw.