The popular Adam Sandler series will return in 2027, but it’s uncertain if Sandler himself will be involved. When discussing consistently successful actors, a few names always come up: Will Smith and Tom Cruise have long been Hollywood staples, and Margot Robbie has become a major box office draw over the past ten years.
Even hugely popular actors have had films that didn’t do well – think Tom Cruise’s attempt to revive The Mummy franchise or Margot Robbie’s ambitious Babylon. But their overall success means a single flop isn’t a major issue. Brad Pitt, for example, starred in a $540 million horror movie, so his role in Babylon didn’t raise many eyebrows. Interestingly, Adam Sandler is often left out of these discussions about star power, despite consistently drawing audiences.
Adam Sandler first became famous in the 1990s with a series of comedies that critics didn’t love, but audiences did, like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy. In the 2000s, he showed his range by acting in well-received dramas such as Punch-Drunk Love, while continuing to draw large crowds with comedies like Mr. Deeds, 50 First Dates, Click, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. But it was in the 2010s that Sandler achieved his greatest box office success with the Grown Ups and Hotel Transylvania movie series.
How Hotel Transylvania Quietly Became An Animated Juggernaut
Adam Sandler’s films have seen varied success. While one earlier comedy earned $272 million worldwide, the Hotel Transylvania animated movies became huge hits for him. The first Hotel Transylvania in 2012 made $358 million, and the sequel in 2015 surpassed that with $474 million. The third film, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, released in 2017, is Sandler’s most commercially successful movie yet, earning an impressive $528 million.
Despite being a huge success that earned Adam Sandler millions, he surprisingly decided not to participate in the fourth Hotel Transylvania movie, released in 2022 as Transformania. While Selena Gomez and Andy Samberg reprised their roles as Dracula’s daughter and her boyfriend, Sandler was replaced by voice actor Brian Hull, who sounds very similar to him.
A fifth Hotel Transylvania movie, called The Haunting of Hotel Transylvania, is planned for October 2027, but it’s uncertain if Adam Sandler will reprise his role, as he didn’t participate in the previous film. Currently, Sandler’s upcoming projects include Grown Ups 3, an untitled movie with the Safdie Brothers, and Time Out, a remake of a 2001 French thriller directed by Scott Cooper, who also directed Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
Adam Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania Franchise Exit Didn’t Hurt The Series (Yet)
Adam Sandler wasn’t in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania because he was busy filming several Netflix projects in 2022. It’s hard to say if his absence affected how well the movie did, though, since it skipped theaters due to COVID-19 and went straight to streaming on Prime Video – a first for the series.
Okay, so Hotel Transylvania 5 is going to be a real test case for the series. Honestly, if Adam Sandler doesn’t come back for this one, I’m worried it won’t do as well as Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation – that movie was HUGE! It was the biggest hit they’ve had so far. But, here’s a thought: if Hotel Transylvania 5 actually does really well in theaters without Sandler, then maybe he wasn’t the main reason people were going to see these movies in the first place. It would be fascinating to see how it plays out.
2026-07-20 22:08