20 most notable films starring the cast of 'Friends'

“Friends” debuted in 1994, and in 1996, the first wave of movies starring members of the “Friends” cast began to be released. David Schwimmer, comfortably, had the least notable and least ambitious movie career. Total Ross move, right? Schwimmer, to be fair, never really showed much indication that he wanted a film career. “The Pallbearer” is a romantic comedy starring Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow; it’s bad and a flop.

Schwimmer also has no real need to work if he doesn’t feel like it. One, “Friends” alone has made him rich as all hell. Two, he jumped into the “Madagascar” franchise as a neurotic giraffe. Schwimmer has lent his voice to three “Madagascar” movies, and the money he’s made from that can pay for Schwimmer’s second vacation home, presuming he has one.

Playing the “quirky” one on “Friends” made Kudrow easier to port over to a lead role in comedy movies. She starred alongside Mira Sorvino in “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” in a role that really tapped into the Phoebe of it all. Like “The Pallbearer,” “Romy and Michelle” was a flop, but it’s become a bit of a cult classic, and reasonably so. It’s funny, and it’s surprisingly sweet all things considered.

Well, on the one hand, Kudrow got a supporting role in a smash success that netted a sequel. On the other hand, it’s one of those roles one could arguably describe as “thankless.” The film stars Robert De Niro as a mobster who goes into therapy, with Billy Crystal as his put-upon therapist. Crystal’s character is also getting married, and Kudrow plays his frustrated fiancé. It’s a generic role, but she’s fine in it.

Oof. In a vacuum, it wasn’t a terrible idea to sign on to a Nora Ephron movie. Did Kudrow read the script for “Lucky Numbers,” though? The film is a deranged black comedy, but not in a good way. Ephron didn’t seem capable of wrangling the material, which wasn’t going to work in anybody’s hands. Plus, Kudrow was starring alongside John Travolta, who by 2000 was pretty much back to being checked out, with an unremarkable performance. “Lucky Numbers” was an abject flop, and Kudrow’s film career seemingly never recovered.

It’s Matt LeBlanc playing baseball with a chimpanzee. It was never going to be good. We assume, and hope, LeBlanc got a good paycheck out of it. The entire selling point of “Ed” was “See Joey and a chimp play baseball!” It’s not surprising that “Ed” got terrible reviews, but it was also a total flop.

LeBlanc’s movie career ended even more swiftly than Kudrow’s. No wonder he was the only one who took a spinoff gig from “Friends.” “Lost in Space” was a big-budget sci-fi adventure based on the old TV show. Expectations for success were high. “Independence Day” and “Men in Black” had delivered as sci-fi hits in recent years, and “Armageddon” hit theaters in 1998 as well. Somehow, LeBlanc totally tanked it as the good-looking hotshot on the crew. The movie isn’t good, and he’s not good in it either. It was not a success in any way, shape, or form, and while Heather Graham rebounded, LeBlanc did not.

No, we aren’t counting “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” because that came out in 1994. “Scream” was the first movie where Courteney Cox was cast as one of the stars of “Friends.” It’s an ensemble piece, but Cox’s investigative reporter Gale Weathers is one of the key members of that ensemble. In fact, Cox has played Gale in all seven “Scream” movies, and the first two are actually good and watchable!

Cox was great as Monica, and she’s been good as Gale in the “Scream” movies, but she really never figured out a movie career beyond that. She’s never succeeded as the lead of a movie, and even most of the ensembles she’s been a part of haven’t worked out. “3000 Miles to Graceland” is a bad movie, and it flopped. Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner star as members of Elvis impersonating robbers who rip off a Vegas casino. Cox is, well, she’s just sort of there. This is a lousy movie that really doesn’t have anything going on for it beyond the initial concept.

Cox did return to TV success (to a degree) with the underrated sitcom “Cougar Town.” Before retreating to the safe haven of sitcom life, though, Cox lent her voice to an animated animal adventure movie. Hey, it worked for Schwimmer and “Madagascar!” “Barnyard” is…not “Madagascar.” Cox played the cow's love interest, the lead cow played by Kevin James. Also, she’s a pregnant widow, which is wild for a Nickelodeon movie. “Barnyard” was a financial success and was turned into a TV show.

The late Matthew Perry did a lot of TV work after “Friends,” but he also had a solid film career. After a couple of years on the show, he was able to step into a lead role in a romantic comedy. One opposite another rising star, Salma Hayek. It’s your classic “architect meets free-spirited woman” romcom, and we don’t say that as a joke. That’s, like, the gist of a half-dozen romantic comedies at least. “Fools Rush In” was only a slight success, but it was successful enough that neither Perry nor Hayek was hindered by it.

“Almost Heroes” was unfortunately hit by tragedy before it ever had a chance. The historical comedy starred Perry and Chris Farley, but Farley died several months before the film's release. Apparently, Farley fans weren’t down to go out to the theaters to pay homage to the late actor. “Almost Heroes” was a massive flop, and wasn’t helped by the fact it looked bad and pretty much everybody thought it was bad.

Finally, a Perry movie really proved to be a success, at least commercially. “The Whole Nine Yards” is a mismatched pair comedy with Perry as a timid dentist and Bruce Willis as his new neighbor, a hitman on the run. The film made over $100 million, a good amount for an R-rated comedy. They even made a sequel, “The Whole Ten Yards,” but the premise had worn thin, and they made that one PG-13 to no avail.

Perry’s final film before he went fully back to the sitcom life (perhaps, like John Goodman, the steady gig was beneficial to him as a man with substance issues), “17 Again,” was mostly a vehicle for the burgeoning young actor Zac Efron. It’s your classic high-concept comedy, with a 37-year-old man becoming his 17-year-old self after a fantastical occurrence. Perry plays the older version of Efron’s character. It was a hit, though you can credit Efron for that, but “17 Again” is also unexpectedly solid for a movie with this premise made in the 2000s.

Famously, pre-“Friends,” Jennifer Aniston was in “Leprechaun,” but she’s also comfortably had the best film career of the cast. She’s the one who became a proper movie star, though it took a few swings before Aniston had a hit. At the time, “Office Space” was not that big of a hit. Aniston was lending his stardom to the low-budget comedy to be part of Mike Judge’s ensemble. The film has now become one of the quintessential cult movies.

Finally, Aniston was in an out-and-out blockbuster. Starring alongside Jim Carrey in 2003 could make that happen. Aniston plays the girlfriend of Carrey’s Bruce, the titular character who gets the chance to literally play god. While Aniston’s role is secondary, “Bruce Almighty” made six times its budget and was a massive hit for a comedy.

Starring as the romantic interest in a Ben Stiller comedy was perhaps a half-step down from Carrey, but he was in the ballpark at the time. This time, Aniston is the titular character, even if she isn’t the main character. It’s a little odd, as the romantic comedy is about Stiller and Aniston reconnecting after knowing each other in middle school, but mostly it’s about Stiller’s character becoming more outgoing and ambitious thanks to falling for a woman. “Along Came Polly” is a so-so comedy, but it was a hit.

Hey, after you make a movie with Ben Stiller, why not make one with Owen Wilson? This dramedy was a Christmas release for the whole family…as long as you don’t mind a dog dying. Call that a spoiler if you will, but that is the thing people have talked about with “Marley & Me” since 2008. The movie is a little sappy, but audiences who love dogs laughed and cried through the holiday season. This was another big hit for Aniston.

Aniston stepped into this dark comedy in order to play against type, as she is one of the titular horrible bosses the main trio is planning to murder. It’s the sort of morbid, adult comedy that had fallen from popularity, and also has done so once again. However, “Horrible Bosses” was another hit, and it even yielded a sequel.

Now busy with “The Morning Show,” Aniston has essentially only made two movies since 2019: “Murder Mystery” and its sequel. These movies are vehicles for two of the remaining comedy stars, Aniston and Adam Sandler. Naturally, they are Netflix movies. That being said, they are pretty solid mystery comedies, and “pretty solid” is kind of the sweet spot for Netflix.