Swingers and Good Will Hunting hold a sort of distinction in film history as being the “ones that dun it“… meaning, despite their best previous efforts, until the comedy and drama became success stories, nobody knew:

• Jon Favreau
• Vince Vaughn
• Matt Damon
• Ben Affleck

But which film is the better Bar Mitzvah Quinceañera Sweet Sixteen coming out party?  Let’s wage an Awesome Battle!

BOX OFFICE

Swingers was put together for $200,000, and it went on to make $4.5 million.  Good Will Hunting was produced for $10 million and it netted almost $226 million.  That’s pretty close ratios, so let’s get specific:

$4,555,020 gross / $200,000 investment = 22.7751 (Swingers)

$225,933,435 gross / $10,000,000 investment = 22.5933435 (Good Will Hunting)

So Swingers earned just over 2277% of its budget, whereas Good Will Hunting earned just over 2259% of its budget.

• WINNER: Swingers
• APPROPRIATE QUOTE: “You’re so money and you don’t even know it!”

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

We can take two aspects into consideration here: reviews and awards.

Swingers received 87% Fresh from critics (45 positive reviews and 7 negative)

Good Will Hunting received 97% Fresh from critics (68 positive reviews and 2 negative)

89% of the audience liked Swingers; 92% liked Good Will Hunting.

As for awards, Good Will Hunting won Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams and Oscars for Best Original Screenplay went to Damon and Affleck.  So that’s three for the drama; zero for the comedy.

• WINNER: Good Will Hunting
• APPROPRIATE QUOTE: “How do ya like them tomatoes apples?”

INCREASE IN STAR POWER

So let’s take a quick rundown of everyone’s successes following these films?

Jon Favreau has directed these films which together grossed about $1.6 billion:

• Elf
• Iron Man
• Iron Man 2
• Cowboys & Aliens

Vince Vaughn has starred in these films which together grossed about $744 million:

• Old School
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
• Wedding Crashers
• The Break-Up

Matt Damon has starred in these two trilogies which together grossed about $2.1 billion:

• Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, Ocean’s Thirteen
• The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum

Ben Affleck has starred in and/or written/directed these critically acclaimed films which together grossed about $477 million + Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor which made another $449 million:

• Shakespeare in Love
• Gone Baby Gone
• The Town

(Plus Ben Affleck was getting plenty of J. Lo when the getting was good.)

• WINNER: Their agents
• APPROPRIATE QUOTE: “You move, you die.” – Jason Bourne, in The Bourne Identity, which was directed by Swingers’ director, Doug Liman (full circle)

SO THE OVERALL WINNER IS…

Us… I guess?  Nope, nope.  It’s their agents.