Adam Sandler was a very busy actor from 1994 to 1998 as he was starring in movies such as Billy Madison, Airheads, and The Waterboy. Sandler’s career grew quickly in those years and it especially bloomed with the 1998 release of The Waterboy. In most of the projects he was involved in, and certainly with all of the hit comedies he starred in during this period, Sandler was involved as the writer and/or producer of most of them and had a direct hand in the movies’ success. But sandwiched in between all of that was the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer. It was the only hit comedy of this era that Sandler was involved in that he did not get a writing credit for and it was also his first movie working with director Frank Coraci which would be a working relationship that would flourish in 1998. Much of what Sandler and Coraci did together in 1998 was dwarfed by the phenomenal success of The Waterboy but it can be argued that The Wedding Singer was the set up for The Waterboy and really helped that movie gain the success that it did.

The Wedding Singer is a very funny movie about a wedding singer in the 1980’s named Robbie. Even though this movie was made in 1998 you would have sworn that it was made in 1987 with the spot on way the producers recreated the 1980’s look throughout the entire movie. The Wedding Singer is about Robbie making his way as a 1980’s wedding singer and one day he meets Julia who is engaged to be married to a self-centered guy who cheats on Julia and has no respect for her. As expected Robbie begins to fall for Julia and just when it looks like Robbie and Julia might get together Robbie’s old girlfriend returns into Robbie’s life and she comes face to face with Julia. Robbie’s old girlfriend tells Julia a story about her and Robbie getting back together which is not true and when Robbie finds out Julia will not see him anymore and that she intends to marry the self-centered guy it sends Robbie into a tailspin. The result is about 25 minutes of some of the funniest wedding singer scenes you have ever seen in any movie. Sandler’s depiction of a down and out wedding singer in the 1980’s in The Wedding Singer is spot on and a joy to watch. The movie ends with Billy Idol getting involved and the whole thing takes some pretty bizarre turns but when it comes to comedy The Wedding Singer delivers.

After seeing The Wedding Singer many people were more than willing to go see The Waterboy later that year and Adam Sandler was on his way. While movies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are usually credited with being the foundations for Sandler’s success it can be argued that The Wedding Singer is really the movie that set Sandler up for mega success later in 1998 with The Waterboy. It is not easy to make a heart warming love story that features a cameo from Billy Idol but Coraci and Sandler seem to pull it off. After The Wedding Singer Sandler and Coraci went on to work on the mega hit The Waterboy and a 2006 hit for Sandler’s production company called Click. But much of the success that Sandler enjoys today can be traced directly back to some smart movie marketing in 1998.