“The Fall Guy” seemed to have it all.
Megawatt stars. Death-defying stunts. Wonderful reviews. An original story – what sequel-weary filmgoers say they want.
Universal backed “The Fall Guy” with a six-month marketing campaign, releasing trailers that racked up 400 million views and bombarding televised sporting events, including the Super Bowl, with ads.
It grossed just $28.5 million in North American ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, the worst start to Hollywood's all-important summer season since 1995. “The Fall Guy” cost Universal at least $200 million to make and on to the market and was released in 4,002 copies. theaters in the United States and Canada. It collected another $37 million abroad.
This is why studios don't take risks with new stories. “The business is so tough and it's so hard to break through with new ideas,” says David A. Gross, a film consultant who is publishing a book. newsletter on cash register numbers. “Do you want to explain to the shareholders why you spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a new-fangled idea that crashed?”
“The Fall Guy,” an action comedy, shares a name and some basic DNA with a television drama that ran on ABC from 1981 to 1986. But the story of the film is completely new. Scott Mendelson, a box office columnist with his own newsletter subscriptionmoviegoers complain that Hollywood doesn't make enough original films, “and then when they do, they stay home or go somewhere else.”
Ryan Gosling, fresh off “Barbie” and a celebrated singing performance at the Academy Awards, playing a down-on-his-luck stuntman who becomes entangled in a murder mystery while trying to rekindle a romantic relationship. Emily Blunt plays a film director. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham and Jason Momoa round out the cast of “The Fall Guy.”
It was the first time in 19 years that Hollywood's summer season — a four-month period that typically accounts for 40 percent of annual ticket sales — didn't start with a superhero or a sequel. Last year, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Marvel's 3″ started the summer with $118 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend and would go on to rake in $846 million worldwide.
To find a season opener with lower ticket sales than “The Fall Guy,” you'd have to go back to 1995, when “French Kiss,” a mid-budget romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, totaled about raised $18 million. today's dollars. (The most recent original film to kick off the summer season was Ridley Scott's “Kingdom of Heaven,” which grossed $31.5 million in 2005 after adjusting for inflation.)
When movies arrive and ticket sales are disappointing, studios always say they hope word of mouth will bring a bigger audience in the coming weeks. Universal was no different on Sunday, saying in a statement that it “expects this action-thriller perfect for a date-night movie to still be playable in the coming weeks.”
In the case of 'The Fall Guy', it might not be (just) a spider. Romantic comedies can start slowly and build up. “Anyone but You,” made for $25 million, opened to a dismal $8 million in Christmas weekend sales and chugged away to $219 million worldwide. In 2022, “The Lost City” grossed $68 million, reached $30.5 million, and ultimately raked in $193 million.