Adam Sandler on Cameron Boyce Tribute, Julie Bowen

Adam Sandler is celebrating the Happy Gilmore 2 team’s swings that helped deliver the biggest U.S. opening weekend of all time for a Netflix film.

Director Kyle Newacheck‘s sequel to the beloved 1996 golf comedy began streaming Friday to strong numbers, as the movie was No. 1 on the streamer’s English film list and marked the highest debut for a Sandler feature by collecting 46.7 million views in its first three days, according to Netflix. Additionally, Netflix also reports that Universal’s original Happy Gilmore movie had 11.4 million views, landing it at No. 3 on the platform’s movie chart.

During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Sandler and co-writer Tim Herlihy discuss the decision to have Happy deal with a tragic loss; the film’s heartfelt tribute to Sandler’s Grown Ups co-star Cameron Boyce, who died from an epileptic seizure at age 20; and the chance of future sequels to Sandler’s titles.

How does it feel to get this response to the film?

SANDLER We couldn’t be happier. It’s something that I can’t describe. Just walking down the street, hearing people talk about it even before it came out — we were like, something fun is going on here. We went from, this was nothing we ever thought about, to having one of the best times of our careers together, feeling the fun of it all.

You had typically eschewed sequels, at least until Grown Ups 2. Given the pressure of reviving a beloved character, did this new iteration accomplish what you wanted?

SANDLER Herlihy, what do you think?

HERLIHY We made this movie for the sickos who loved the first movie. Seeing how the first movie’s doing on Netflix — it’s doing great, too. People have really embraced it as a continuation of the story.

Are there any other films of yours that could get a sequel?

HERLIHY This throws it open. Obviously, a lot of our older movies, we’ve lost castmembers, like in this one, and sometimes it’s hard to imagine doing it without them. Definitely not sure we want to just be in the business of doing sequels to movies. (Laughs.) But the response to this and the way people have embraced it definitely makes it more exciting, if we were to do that.

[The following question contains a spoiler for Happy Gilmore 2.]

The movie includes a stunning reveal for Julie Bowen‘s character, Virginia. Was it a tough decision to make that choice with her?

SANDLER We love Julie. She’s just a great vibe and a great person. We love working with her, and we did the first one and Hubie Halloween. We just knew we needed Happy to have to overcome something in this story. There’s nothing more painful than losing someone you love. Just wanted to show how dedicated Happy was to Julie’s character, and he would never be able to move on from it and the love he had for her. We just thought that was something to have going with the new story of where Happy is at his age. We’re older now, so we’ve seen people go through stuff, and when you get older, this shit can happen — not in the same way it happens in our movie, but you lose people. Just dealing with it is difficult, and especially when you feel like you might have been a part of it, it’s hard to shake that stuff. So we just thought it was interesting for Happy to have to think about that and get back in the game.

HERLIHY Julie is one of the best hangs around. We were really looking forward to seeing her and Chris [McDonald] and Ben [Stiller]. So it was a real sacrifice, but as Adam was saying, the story kind of demanded it.

Were there moments or cameos that didn’t make it into the finished film?

HERLIHY I don’t want to get specific about any of the cameos. Definitely, some people didn’t make it, and some treasured jokes didn’t make it. To get it into a reasonable length, we had to cut some things that were working, which is always hard. It’s easy to cut jokes that aren’t working, but it’s hard to cut the jokes that really score but just don’t fit in a movie time frame.

Is there talk of bringing the character back for other projects or a third film?

HERLIHY Not between me and Adam. I can say we haven’t had one discussion about it. I haven’t even thought about it in the privacy of my own brain. I’m sure some people in the world are talking about it. Never say never, I guess. We said we’d never do Happy Gilmore 2, and it’s currently streaming on Netflix, so you never know.

What went into giving Cameron Boyce an appearance in the film?

SANDLER Love that kid. He was one of the sweetest persons I’ve ever met — just constantly in a good mood, constantly great energy, loving to everybody. He felt like a family member to us when we were shooting Grown Ups. Of course, we were going to shoot with Cameron on Hubie Halloween, and we were getting ready to have a great time together, and we lost him. We think of him all the time. This was just a moment where we were like, “What should we throw on the TV?” We said, “Might as well throw Cameron in there. He’s the man. Keep him part of our family.” And so that’s why we did it.