41-year-old Judd Apatow , is a former roommate to Adam Sandler, and for lack of any other word, he is the brand-name in comedy right now.

His films convey the right amount of emotion and are riddled with ridiculous humor. Is his upcoming film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” the next one to break the $100 million barrier.

Let’s look at the Judd Apatow numbers:

As a director Apatow is batting 2 for 2:
“40-Year-Old Virgin” – (2005) – $109.5 million domestic box office ($26 million budget)
“Knocked Up” (2007) – $148.8 million domestic box office ($30 million budget)

As a producer Apatow is 5 for 7 with the following hits:
“Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” – (2004) $85 million box office ($26 million budget)
“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” – (2006) $148 million box office ($73 million budget)
“Superbad” – (2007) $121.5 million box office ($20 million budget)
- Apatow also produced the 2 films he directed which were successes. We can count “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and “The Cable Guy” as failures.

As a writer, Apatow is 3 for 6 with duds in 1995 “Heavyweights” and 1996 “Celtic Pride” along with “Dewey Cox” in 2007 but success with “Knocked Up” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” as well as “Fun With Dick and Jane” starring Jim Carrey that grossed $110 million ($92 million overseas) in 2005 for Sony.

The lesson is clear, the lower the budget and the more creatively involved Apatow is to the actual film, the higher the chance that the film will succeed.

At this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” broke out and pre-claimed Jason Segel (”How I Met Your Mother“) as another star found in the Apatow mold.

The 28-year-old comedian shares with some other Apatow stars something in common. Like Apatow himself, Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen, he’s a jew. And he’s not physically normal (at 6′4″) and he’s not afraid to take risks (he shows off his penis in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”)

Our Psychic prediction is that “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” will cross the $100 million mark.