Happy Madison Productions
Happy Madison Productions, Inc. is an American film and television production company founded in 1999 by Adam Sandler,[1][2][3] 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.
Company type
December 10, 1999
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S. (parent company)
- Adam Sandler (CEO)
- Allen Covert
- Jack Giarraputo (President)
- Tim Herlihy
- Heather Parry
- Scott Sandler
- Barry Bernardi
- Steve Koren
- Mark O'Keefe
- Seth Gordon
- Timothy Dowling
Adam Sandler
Jack Giarraputo
Happy Madison, Inc.
Madison 23 Productions (2007–2009)
Scary Madison Productions (2009)
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.[4]
In 2002, the company expanded its operations onto television with a pilot commitment at The WB.[5] After fifteen years, head Doug Robinson would leave the company to start its own at Sony Pictures Television.[6]
The company also had a short-lived subsidiary called Madison 23 Productions, which was aimed towards the drama genre. It only produced two films: Reign Over Me and Funny People, which both starred Sandler. Another subsidiary was Scary Madison Productions, which was aimed towards the horror genre and only produced the film The Shortcut.