After the humongous hit and accolades he received from Barbie last year, Ryan Gosling is back on the big screen with The Fall Guy. The film interestingly pairs him with Oppenheimer star Emily Blunt whose film was part of the Barbenheimer hype train last year. Their hilarious banter about the phenomenon and their films attracted fans to see their chemistry in The Fall Guy.
The film was released on May 3, and audiences generally loved the David Leitch-directed film. On its opening day, the film collected an underwhelming box office collection of $10.4 million, a relatively low opening compared to its budget. The summer movie season has unfortunately started on a dull note.
Ryan Gosling’s The Fall Guy Opens Below Expectations Despite Positive Reviews
David Leitch’s The Fall Guy had a lot going for it as it neared its release date. The film saw the union of two stars from the Barbenheimer phenomenon Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, who have been attracting audiences with their hilarious banter at award events and press junkets. Steven Spielberg even told Gosling at the Golden Globes about how much he loved the film.
Many believed that The Fall Guy would benefit from the huge success of the phenomenon and Leitch’s track record as a director. The film also kicks off the summer movie season and it hasn’t started the new season with a bang. As Variety reports, the film opened at a disappointing $10.4 million.
With this low opening, the previous three-day projections of mid to low $30 million have now reduced to $28 million. Audiences are not turning up in huge numbers like the previous two films of the actors and with a budget of $130 million, it will be an uphill battle to be a profitable film considering the competition that it’s about to face next week.
It has been a slow week for movies since April with Abigail, Civil War, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare failing to blow up the box office. They earned $4 million, $3.3 million, and $3.7 million respectively on the opening day (domestic via Variety). While The Fall Guy is performing better than those three, it is still a disappointing collection when compared to its budget.
Fortunately for the film, it has received good reviews from those who watched it and it has achieved an impressive A- CinemaScore from audiences (as per Variety). With word of mouth, the film may brace along but next week, another big competitor will come in the form of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which will certainly affect its performance. It remains to be seen how much the film will earn by the end of its theatrical run.
Ryan Gosling Is No Longer Picking Dark Roles For the Sake of His Wife and Kids
Before his meteoric rise in popularity in 2023 due to his role as Ken in Barbie, Ryan Gosling was mostly known for dark and brooding characters. He often played emotionally complex individuals searching for a purpose, leading them to commit some questionable actions.
Films like Blue Valentine, Drive, The Place Beyond the Pines, Blade Runner 2049, etc have shown Gosling’s incredible range as a dramatic actor where he speaks more with his facial expressions rather than actual dialogue. However, the actor has now been doing lighter roles in his latest films Barbie and The Fall Guy, and he wants it to remain that way.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the actor revealed that he does not want to play characters that are going to put him in a dark place anymore. He has decided to put his family first and does not want to bring the baggage of being in the headspace of a psychologically complex character back home. Gosling said,
“I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place. This moment is what I feel like trying to read the room at home and feel like what is going to be best for all of us. The decisions I make, I make them with Eva and we make them with our family in mind first.”
Gosling currently stars in David Letch’s The Fall Guy opposite Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, Teresa Palmer, Stephanie Hsu, and Winston Duke. Next, he is set to re-team with Margot Robbie on an Ocean’s Eleven prequel film.
Gosling’s The Fall Guy is currently playing in theatres worldwide.
