Adam Sandler has razzle dazzled us at the movies for years, leading us to memorable comedies, from The Wedding Singer to Fifty First Dates and throwing in some legitimately good dramatic performances in flicks like Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems to boot. Of course, he’s also known as being the king of the Razzies, the awards ceremony known for awarding those who have underachieved or done poorly with movie choices in a given year. Intriguingly, Adam Sandler is not the A-lister with the most personal Razzie wins, however.
According to information compiled by Bonus, the Jack and Jill star has accumulated four personal Golden Rapberry Awards, which ties him in third place with Kevin Costner (another actor whose movies run the gamut from Bull Durham and Field of Dreams to Waterworld). The actors with the highest accumulation of Golden Raspberry Awards? That distinction goes to none other than Sylvester Stallone and Madonna, who rank in second and first place respectively for wins. Full breakdown of most individual wins can be seen below.
Madonna (7 Razzie Awards, 9 nominations)Sylvester Stallone (6 Razzie Awards, a whopping 20 nominations)Adam Sandler (4 Razzie Awards, 12 nominations)Kevin Costner (4 Razzie Awards, 8 nominations)Bo Derek (3 Razzie Awards, 5 nominations)Brooke Shields (3 Razzie Awards, 5 nominations)Demi Moore (3 Razzie Awards, 7 nominations)Eddie Murphy (3 Razzie Awards, 8 nominations)M. Night Shyamalan (3 Razzie Awards, 5 nominations)Paris Hilton (3 Razzie Award, 3 nominations)Pauly Shore (3 Razzie Awards, 3 nominations)Pia Zhadora (3 Razzie Awards, 3 nominations)
As you can see, some of the most brutal-feeling of these are the individuals with three nominations and three wins. It’s worth pointing out that a lot of notable names skated by here, though. For example, Tyler Perry has a whopping 11 nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards, yet did not make the list of winners above. John Travolta and Arnold Schwarzenegger also have eight nominations apiece and Burt Reynolds and Jennifer Lopez each have seven nominations.
Some other huge names have landed noms. There’s Keanu Reeves and Johnny Depp, both with five noms. Cameron Diaz, Angelina Jolie and Ben Affleck didn’t skate through with zero noms here either, landing four apiece. Michael Bay, Nicolas Cage and Sharon Stone stand out even more, nabbing six apiece.
Eddie Murphy previously said it was the Razzie Awards that really made him rethink the trajectory of his career and pull back from a lot of movies over the last decade. He said in a recent WTF podcast interview the Razzies really gave him a new lease on where to take his comedy, telling Marc Maron:
The plan was, ‘cuz I’d stopped making movies in 2011. I was like, ‘Let me take a break from movies.’ I was making shitty movies, and it was like, 'This shit ain't fun. They’re givin’ me Razzies.’ I think those motherfuckers gave me the ‘Worst Actor Ever’ Razzie, or some shit. It was like, ‘Yeah, maybe it’s time to take a break; when you get the worst actor ever razzie. Maybe I need to pull back.
And if you wonder where the movies stand, we actually saw a Golden Raspberry Awards milestone in 2020, when Cats was nominated for a whopping nine awards and won six.
Still, of all of the people on this list, the name I’d equate with the Razzies the most is probably still Adam Sandler--sorry Sandman--but a lot of the Adam Sandler movies that have landed Razzie nominations were not specific nominations for Adam Sandler personally. For example, Jack and Jill solidly won a slew of categories including but not limited to Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture, landing 7 Razzies overall and sweeping the awards the year it came out. A slew of other movies including Grown-Ups 2, That’s My Boy, Blended, and Hubie Halloween all landed nominations.
Still the Razzies also don’t always get it right, as apparently Adam Sandler was nominated partially for Happy Gilmore in 1997.
The good news? In 2020, Adam Sandler was nominated for the Razzie Redeemer Reward for his work in Uncut Gems. I’d say like the Oscars nominations, he was robbed. However, he did lose to Eddie Murphy for the latter’s work in Dolemite is my Name, so instead I’ll just say there was worthy competition in the category that year.
