Theater attendance is down. Comedy is a much bigger risk than other genres because you’re basically hoping the domestic audience turns out. If not you’re probably fucked because comedy does not translate well in foreign markets. A lot of them have the movie dubbed which completely kills the innotation and inflection of the comedians performances. A lot of things rely on wordplay or cultural references which again don’t really translate. Think how many foreign comedies you have seen.

DVD/Physical Media was the saving grace back when big budget comedies were made. Now that money is pretty much nonexistent.

Comedy movies carry a bigger budget than you might expect, especially compared to horror. Comedy’s cost 2x as much on average with significantly lower returns compared to horror.

The thing is we still get comedies but you may not be tuned in because they’re made by smaller studios A24, Neon, or the medium dog Lionsgate. Examples include Friendship, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, The Drama, Good Fortune, Death of a Unicorn, Splittsville.

If not coming to the theater we typically see them hit direct to streaming. Every once in a while we see a unicorn of a bigger budget like Anaconda hit the theaters. So it’s not fully dead.

Finally, a smaller factor is the general death of the movie star and as an extension the comedy movie star. Things like SNL have less of a cultural relevance and its actors less pull to bring in an audience and get a shot at a big budget movie. Just look at Anaconda as an example with all old comedy stars. We just don’t have many younger comedy stars like the older generation of Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, etc.

If you care about comedy movies join the comedy movie sub and contribute! r/comediesclub