Spa Weekend Directors Lucas & Moore on Theatrical Comedy
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- Jon Lucas and Scott Moore directed, wrote, and produced "Spa Weekend," which stars Anna Faris, Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann, and Michelle Buteau, and is currently playing in cinemas from Black Bear.
- Lucas and Moore wrote the original screenplay for "The Hangover" (2009), which the source notes grossed nearly $470M globally and became a trilogy, setting a benchmark the duo says subsequent comedies have struggled to match.
- The pair also launched the "Bad Moms" feature franchise in 2016 and 2017 and discussed the current state of that series on the podcast.
- The episode examines why major studios stopped producing pure original comedies for theatrical release, with the genre migrating to streaming — a shift the filmmakers contrast with the continued theatrical success of hybrid genre comedies.
- Lucas and Moore explicitly distinguish pure original comedies from hybrid examples cited in the source: "Deadpool & Wolverine" (superhero/R-rated), "Get Out" (horror/comedy), the last two "Bad Boys" films (action comedy), and the summer's "Scary Movie" revival (horror/legacy comedy).
Why it matters: By releasing "Spa Weekend" theatrically through Black Bear, Lucas and Moore are making a concrete bet against the studio pattern they describe in the source: pure original comedies have been pushed to streaming while hybrid genre comedies keep earning wide theatrical runs. For the filmmakers and Black Bear, the film's cinema play tests whether an R-rated ensemble comedy can still draw paying audiences at a time when Lucas and Moore say the theatrical comedy pipeline has thinned.
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