The 80s had Porky’s, Animal House, Fast Times, Revenge of the Nerds, Mischief, Just One of the Guys, etc. The genre died out until American Pie was released. AP domestic box office topped $100,000,000. I thought Hollywood loved to milk a successful formula.
American Pie certainly ushered in an era of American Pie sequels and spin-offs – according to Wikipedia there are currently four movies in the main American Pie series with a fifth on the way, and an additional four direct-to-video spin-offs.
Glancing at Wikipedia’s list of teen movies released in the 2000s, there are a lot that I haven’t seen but that appear to be sex comedies, like 100 Girls, The Girl Next Door, and EuroTrip. There was also 40 Days and 40 Nights, a 20-something sex comedy. Election was released a few months before American Pie in 1999, and while I wouldn’t call it a teen sex comedy it was a comedy that involved teenagers and sex.
A big difference between the 1970s-early 1980s and today is that the PG-13 rating did not exist then. A teen movie had to be either clean enough for a PG, or an R. It looks like most of the earlier teen sex comedies you name were released with an R rating either before or soon after the PG-13 rating was adopted in 1984. Once the PG-13 rating existed it probably seemed more sensible for studios to try to keep most teen movies at the PG-13 level instead of going raunchy enough for an R. Many younger teens do see R rated movies anyway, but more would be able to see a PG-13 and I believe there are restrictions on the marketing of R rated movies to young people.
There was also a backlash from the plethora of sex comedies in the 80s. There was a resurgence of family oriented fare, at the same time as in increase in soft porn. There was a brief dip in teen age sex comedies, merely noise in the signal.
Speaking of which, we coincidentally watched American Reunion on cable (HBO?) yesterday - sequel of American Pie - and it wasn’t horrible; a few decent laughs.
I don’t know the answer, but you’ve asked an interesting question …
Don’t forget DVDs. Studios can release a PG-13 or R film to the theatres, then suggestively market the “Unrated” version on DVD (even if the unrated version consists of a few extra scenes that wouldn’t have changed the rating). Granted this option was also avaible on VHS, but it wasn’t popular.
Internet porn in my opinion.
Why watch covered PG-13 “sex” on the screen when you can see hardcore fare on your phone?
The zeitgeist got a bit more conservative in the '80s. The studios were afraid they might be sent to Banned Camp…
They did. Eurotrip, Road Trip, American Pie’s own sequels, Sex Drive, a variety of National Lampoon movies…
nitpick, Animal House was 1978.
Sparkly vampires ate them.
There was plenty about Pie not to emulate. Nearly every gag in the movie was based on kids doing something private with the assumption they weren’t being watched or recorded; not a basis for huge sustained laughs, IMO. And Eugene Levy’s presence in any movie post-Pie is some sort of automatic red flag now, a thankless end to a brilliant career.
I like Black Bisector’s theory. A movie about kids getting it on for the first time is just not gonna have appeal for a teen audience that can watch lesbian bondage three-ways with nuns and flaming weiner dogs on their home computer every night.
I think these are both right.
The MPAA got much more conservative about the display of sex. In the 90’s, Porky’s probably has more trouble with the ratings boards, and has to cut more to get to an R rating. So they lose the prurient sector of their audience (11-16 year old boys) both because there isn’t enough T&A to interest them and because porn becomes a much more widely accessible competitor.
This is the correct answer. American Pie did usher in a new wave of teen sex but they a) weren’t very good and b) were overshadowed by the generic teen comedies that were also released in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Much like Porky’s and its ilk actually. Ferris Bueller, 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club and others are much more memorable than Porky’s and a batch of also-rans.