Adam Sandler. When someone utters that name these days, I tend to shudder. When once he had halfway decent films like Billy Madison and The Wedding Singer, he’s now making movies specifically for Netflix. It seems like a major step down for someone that used to be the king of the box office.

Yet Netflix loves the guy. According to Netflix (via Screen Rant), Adam Sandler vehicles are accounting for over half a billion hours of views on the streaming service. There are no money figures to speak of but Netflix has been happy enough with the results that they have recently given him another four picture deal.

One part of my brain wants to be angry at this thought. The quality of Adam Sandler films has sunk so low, it’s getting near the Earth’s core at this point. Yet the other part of my brain thinks about the business side of film. Adam Sandler doesn’t seem the type that really enjoys the work it takes to be a major Hollywood player. He knows what his core audience will enjoy and caters to them. There are folks that will see anything he makes which is what Netflix is counting on.

What I don’t appreciate Netflix doing is forcing the new Sandler films down the throats of their subscribers. Take The Ridiculous 6. When that film debuted, Netflix went out of its way to include that film in everyone’s favorites. It sent messages that based on your likes, the new Adam Sandler film would be tops on your list of films to love. Apparently Netflix didn’t keep track of the movies I like because they would realize how wrong they were.

I won’t knock anyone that finds a way to make a living in the entertainment business. While his current output is not my cup of tea, he’s still making movies and I’m sitting at home commenting on them. He must be doing something right. Yet I think back to my favorite Adam Sandler movie, The Wedding Singer, and see the potential he had as an actor just wasted. No, he would never be the next DeNiro or Pacino but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be bad at making certain types of films. Yet immediately after The Wedding Singer, he made the atrocious movie The Waterboy. Sandler reminds me a lot of Kevin Smith. They both have talent to be in much better spots than they currently are. They both showed glimmers of bigger things on the horizon yet seemed more comfortable playing to the audience they knew they could get. I’m more disappointed than upset to see Adam Sandler on Netflix.

Yet I could also be viewing this wrong. The audience that Sandler attracts tend to be younger. Folks that tend to view their entertainment via services like Netflix, not in ways people traditionally view movies and television shows. While making Netflix exclusive movies seems like a step down for me, maybe he’s the first to take advantage of how technology is changing the entertainment business. Regardless, he has more money than he’ll ever have use for so he can make all the movies he wants of mules having violent diarrhea and he’d still be in a better place because he’s making movies.