Universal/87North’s “The Fall Guy” did not have a strong start at the summer box office, making only $28 million in the US from 4,002 theaters, according to industry estimates.
No one thought it would have a huge opening like a Marvel movie, but David Leitch’s PG-13 action romantic comedy with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt fell short of the $30.6 million debut of his last film, the R-rated “Bullet Train” released in August 2022.
The good news is that audiences have responded well to the film. “The Fall Guy” got an A- from its opening night viewers on CinemaScore, and it also has Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 83% from critics and 87% from the audience.
Now the question is whether the positive reception can create enough buzz to help the film make a profit against its reported $125-130 million budget. The movie will also need to do well internationally, as it's expected to make $37.4 million from 39 markets by Sunday, for a global total of about $65 million.
But it won't be easy to turn things around, as strong competition is coming next week with the release of Disney/20th Century’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” The fourth installment of the rebooted “Apes” series is projected to make around $50 million in its opening weekend, slightly less than the $56 million debut of “War for the Planet of the Apes” in 2017.
More updates to follow…
