Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn made pretty good money for Wedding Crashers, and this makes sense given how successful the movie was. According to Mel Magazine, the movie made more than $200 million. Given that Owen is now hired for a role in the MCU, it's to be expected that his net worth will grow even more. And while Vince Vaughn's acting career isn't as notable as it was when the 2005 comedy came out, he surely has quite a bit of money to play with. But Owen and Vince's success has to do with more than their individual talents... It has to do with their collective talents.
As described in an excellent oral history of Wedding Crashers by Mel Magazine, the two men actually helped inspire director David Dobkin and screenwriters Steve Faber and Bob Fisher to create for the movie. Well, that a producer with some history in wedding crashing. Here's the inside information straight from the mouths of the creators...
The True Origin Of 'Wedding Crashers'
The R-rated comedy proved to be much more than low-brow comedy. In fact, the movie had some touching romance, contained some honest comedy about aging, and really helped to popularize the bromance genre in Hollywood. Ultimately, the idea for this movie came from meetings that writing partners Steve Faber and Bob Fisher were taking around Hollywood.
"[We] had met with and talked to a lot of executives at various studios while making the rounds," Steve Faber told Mel Magazine. "When we met Andrew Panay at Tapestry Films, he said he had always wanted to do a movie about wedding crashing. Bob and I thought about the idea for a little while, let it cogitate, and thought, 'Yeah, we can maybe make a story out of this.'"
The biggest issue the writers had was trying to figure out a way to sustain the idea of crashing weddings. After all, how much can an audience watch of that?
"It really came together for us, however, when we came up with the idea that the family [of] the two women that [these guys] are interested in are very much like the Kennedys," Bob Fisher explained. "When Steven and I were kids, we were totally into the Kennedys, and I think deep down, we both figured we’d grow up and marry one of the Kennedy daughters and be part of the family. When we thought about that, we knew we were on the road to [the idea] becoming a cool movie, at least for us."
But as Bob and Steve explained, the actual idea for crashing weddings came from producer Andrew Panay:
"I thought of the idea for Wedding Crashers because, at the time, I was in my 20s, getting ready to go to a wedding and for some reason I was excited," Andrew explained. "I thought 'Why am I so excited for this?' and the truth was I thought I might meet a girl. That feeling, that moment truly inspired me to write the story. Then, I met with Steve Faber and Bob Fisher and pitched them the idea. At the time, they had just written a script called We’re The Millers that I loved, and I thought they had a very special voice — a voice where emotion and comedy were wrapped into one. We become close very fast because we shared an understanding of male bonding — and how intimate male relationships can be. We wanted to explore male friendship through this crazy idea of crashing weddings."
Involving Vince And Owen
While at the premiere of his film Shanghai Knights, which starred Owen Wilson, director David Dobkin was wowed by the chemistry between Owen and Vince Vaughn. David had worked with Vince on another project and had invited him to the premiere.
"We were at the after-party, and I’m talking with Vince and looking over at Owen. I swear to God, Abbott and Costello popped into my head," David said. "I remember grabbing my agent and saying, 'I want to find something for Vince and Owen.' He knew I had been looking for an R-rated comedy. Literally, eight weeks later, he called me up and said, 'I think I just read the script.' My agent sent the script to me, and I saw what it could be for both of them — especially for Vince, because Vince and I had been looking for a movie for five years, and you don’t want to swing until you know you’ve got the thing that is going to be a bulls-eye."
While David liked the script, he wanted to make it more of a bromance and develop the relationship between the two guys. He knew that adding that would elevate the project immensely. And with the help of Owen and Vince's natural connection, it did just that.
"[Vince Vaughn and I] have a different kind of energy," Owen Wilson said. "He’s from Chicago; I’m from Texas. I think by working on the script with the director and the writers we found a lot of common ground. The nice thing about working with Vince is that he’d give me ideas, and I’d be very open to them, and I’d do the same — so it was a two-way street, you didn’t have to tiptoe around the person."