“The Fall Guy” seemed to have it all.
Megawatt stars. Death-defying stunts. Splendid reviews. An original story – what movie fans tired of sequels say they want.
Universal supported “The Fall Guy” with a six-month marketing campaign, releasing trailers that racked up 400 million views and carpet-bombing televised sporting events, including the Super Bowl, with commercials.
It totaled just $28.5 million in ticket sales in North America between Friday and 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 market and was released to 4,002 theaters in the United States and Canada. She raised another $37 million overseas.
This is why studios don’t take risks on new stories. “The business is so hard, and it’s so difficult to break through with new ideas,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on ticketing numbers. “You want to explain to shareholders why you spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a new idea that failed?
“The Fall Guy,” an action comedy, shares a name and basic DNA with a television series that aired on ABC from 1981 to 1986. But the film’s story is entirely new. Scott Mendelson, box office columnist with his own subscription newslettersaid moviegoers complain that Hollywood doesn’t make enough original films, “only to stay home or go somewhere else when they do.”
Ryan Gosling, fresh off “Barbie” and a a celebrated singing performance at the Oscars, plays a down-on-his-luck stuntman who becomes embroiled in a murder mystery while trying to rekindle a romantic relationship. Emily Blunt plays a movie director. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham and Jason Momoa complete 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 — did not begin with a superhero or sequel. Last year, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Marvel’s 3″ started the summer with $118 million in opening weekend ticket sales, and went on to gross $846 million worldwide.
To find a first season 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, reached about $18 million in today’s dollars. (The most recent original film to kick off a summer season was Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven,” which grossed $31.5 million in 2005, after adjusting for inflation.)
When films get disappointing ticket sales, studios always say they hope word of mouth will translate into a larger audience in the coming weeks. Universal was no different on Sunday, saying in a statement that it “plans continued gameplay for this action/thriller, perfect for a date night in the coming weeks.”
In the case of “The Fall Guy,” it may not be (just) a spin-off. Romantic comedies can start slowly and build up. “Anyone but You,” made for $25 million, opened to a dismal $8 million in sales over Christmas weekend and went on to gross $219 million worldwide. In 2022, “The Lost City,” grossed $68 million, came in at $30.5 million and ultimately grossed $193 million.
