The Real Reason Some Worried Wedding Crashers Would Never Get Made

Wedding Crashers almost never made it down the aisle.

Looking back at the raucous 2005 comedy for its 15th anniversary, director David Dobkin, who re-teamed with stars Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams for 2020's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, revealed to Variety that the film's fate felt uncertain throughout most of the development process.

As Dobkin recalls, "There was a fear from the marketing department at New Line at the time that these guys were misogynists and that they were [going to] weddings to get laid. [Russell Schwartz of New Line Cinema] sat me down and said, 'I don't know how to sell this movie, it sounds so mean spirited.' I was like, 'Oh, god, I'd never even read it that way.' To me, they love weddings, that's the funny part is they love the food, they love the bands, they love the grandparents, they love the kids. They're the life of the party, they make the weddings the best they could possibly be. And the byproduct of that is seduction. And a seduction means that you're sold on something, that somebody gets you over the hoop. You wanna be seduced in life. When I pitched that to him, he's kind of like, 'Oh, that's interesting, I hope you can pull that off.'"

Clearly, Dobkin's earnest take worked perfectly, especially considering that one of Wedding Crashers' eventual big markets was actually older women. Dobkin remembers, "Everybody in line was buying tickets to the movie and I looked over and a bunch of them were older ladies. I was like, 'Oh, no, they're not going to like the movie.' Women over 50 were the hidden secret weapon of this movie and I couldn't believe it. When I went into the film, they were loving it. Of course, there's two guys in suits and they're dashing and kind of sweet and funny. But it's not like that was a target audience, and so when the movie opened at $34 million, I'm sure a third of the money was an audience that we tapped into that we didn't know we were going to."

As for plans for a sequel, Dobkin says that though he and co-stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn wish they could come up with something original and fresh, they've come up short time and time again. As Dobkin tells Variety, "There is a script that has been worked on. I have been involved in it, but Vince and Owen have not read it, and I have no idea if it's going to connect with them. There was a lot of pressure to make a sequel. Every year they would call me saying, 'Are you sure?' And my agents were like, 'You understand you could retire if you make that movie.' I was like, 'I kind of think we made a great film and I don't want to just make Jaws 2.' And Owen and Vince and I sat down a couple times, and no matter what you did you were making the same movie."

If you want to rewatch Wedding Crashers for its 15th anniversary, the film is available to rent on major streaming platforms now.