Why Isn't "The Fall Guy" a Bigger Hit?

It's a fair question!

Photo by Myke Simon on Unsplash

Universal Pictures’ The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, opened last weekend in the United States to $28.5 million in domestic box office, a figure that Variety’s Rebecca Rubin characterized as “disappointing.” Why? “The trouble is that the movie cost $140 million to produce, so it needs strong word of mouth and interest at the international box office to recoup its budget during its theatrical run,” Rubin explained.

Variety is hardly the only entertainment outlet that described the film’s first-week gross as disappointing. The Los Angeles Times’ Ryan Faughnder explains why this is a grim omen for a Hollywood that is only now recovering from the actor and writer strikes of last year:

With only one superhero film on the schedule (Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool & Wolverine”) — and few other major franchise pictures to compensate — the summer box office is expected to generate $3 billion in ticket sales from the U.S. and Canada.

The key popcorn movie season, which starts the first weekend of May and ends Labor Day, is crucial for studios and multiplexes, traditionally accounting for about 40% of annual domestic sales.

A $3-billion haul would be an ugly result, thanks in part to production delays caused by the writers’ and actors’ strikes, as well as budget-conscious pullbacks at the studios. Last year’s miraculous “Barbenheimer”-fueled summer topped $4 billion. In the pre-COVID-19 times, a summer tally over $4 billion came to be expected practically as a matter of course every year.

The last time the season’s box office was as low as $3 billion (not counting the pandemic-afflicted years of 2020 and 2021) was in 2000, when movie tickets were cheaper than they are now….

“Right now, cinema operators are in need of a significant content infusion,” [Roth MKM analyst Eric] Handler wrote in a note to clients. “Not only is the volume of content down in [the second quarter], but it also lacks sizzle.”

That last point requires some pushback. In a post entitled, “What the Hell Do People Want Out of Movies?” Screencrush’s Matt Singer explains his befuddlement with those thinking the film lacks sizzle:

The Fall Guy really shouldn’t need to desperately eke out a meager profit on the strength of its word-of-mouth. This isn’t some abstruse art film or an ambiguous exploration of the meaning of life; it’s a big, fun, funny, exciting, romantic action movie. It’s got sharp dialogue, strong chemistry between the stars (actual movie stars!), a fun mystery, magnetic lead performances, and terrific stunt work.

While The Fall Guy’s not perfect (and I personally would not have invested $140 million of my money in it), it is the sort of film I think you could take almost anyone to assured they would have at least a solidly good time. It’s almost the platonic ideal of what Hollywood executives describe as a “four-quadrant movie,” i.e. a film that should appeal to men and women over and under the age of 25. I could see my parents enjoying The Fall Guy, and if my kids were maybe two years older I would absolutely take them to see it too; it’s action-packed but not excessively bloody or violent. The sparks flying off the screen between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt could give electric shocks to the viewers in the theater’s first couple rows, but there’s not much profanity and barely any sexual innuendo.

That’s what I find so baffling — and even somewhat disheartening — about The Fall Guy’s struggles. Here you have exactly the sort of movie that people claim to want to see; the sort of thing they don’t make very often any more, with beautiful movie stars flirting and bantering and getting into all sorts of amusing scrapes. It’s not bleak or depressing. It doesn’t make you work too hard, but it also doesn’t insult your intelligence. It’s not a sequel or a reboot and it requires no homework; yes, The Fall Guy is loosely based on an old TV show, but you don’t need to know anything about it to enjoy the film. (I should know; I have never seen an episode of The Fall Guy in my life.)

This prompted some derision on social media about anyone suggesting that a people-pleasing, big-budget adaptation of an old 1980s television show represents Hollywood creativity. But I’m in Singer’s camp here, for three reasons.

First, it’s not like Hollywood creativity requires completely de novo creations. Barbie was based on a toy and Oppenheimer was adapted from a nonfiction book. It ain’t the source, it’s what is done with it that counts. The Fall Guy’s director David Leitch is an ex-stuntman and his love for that profession is very much on the screen.

Second, The Fall Guy is a good film! I saw it last weekend and agree with The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch: “a delightful throwback of a movie: a big-budget action-comedy with romantic elements, the likes of which have been sadly absent in recent years.” Sonny is right, the flick is delightful! It’s not perfect but it is a very entertaining summer film. The leads are great, the supporting cast is excellent, the use of Sydney as a location is fun, and the stuntwork is, as one would expect, amazing. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt play off of each other so effortlessly that I very much want someone to cast them in a Tracy-Hepburn style workplace comedy. They would crush it.

My point is that this is not a film where the only good bits are in the trailers. It is worth seeing on the big screen.

And that leads me to the last, flummoxing point. The marketing for this film was great. Look at the first trailer:

I have never watched an episode of The Fall Guy but was still intrigued by that trailer. The second one also held my attention:

Furthermore, Gosling and Blunt were marketing the film in the past few months. At the Oscars, they had great awards presentation patter. Gosling also reminded everyone just how damn entertaining he can be:

And he did the same thing a few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live.¹

So what is going on?

There are two not-mutually-exclusive possibilities. The first is that The Fall Guy is targeted at, um, er, slightly older viewers and those folks do not feel the need to see a film on its opening weekend. Variety’s executive editor Steven Gaydos compared the The Fall Guy to Dune: Part Two in an interview with the Guardian’s Catherine Shoard: “Both films also center on a love affair, but while Gosling is 43 and Blunt 40, Dune’s stars – Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya – are still in their 20s. ‘For 14-24-year-olds, a romance between people in their 40s is another country,’ says Gaydos.” In other words, the fact that a Gen Xer such as myself liked the trailers might be a sign that it’s less appealing to the younger movie-going demographic.

The second possibility is that The Fall Guy finds its audience over time. Per Rotten Tomatoes, the film has garnered favorable critical reviews and audience reaction. It’s second week is projected to see a smaller-than-expected drop in the box office. Apparently this happened with David Leitch’s last film Bullet Train (which was not as good as The Fall Guy).

Why have I written so many words about this? Mostly because I like going to the movies and do not want to see that form of entertainment disappear as a social practice. But also because I am legitimately trying to understand why a good movie that was cleverly marketed failed to land as well as expected.

1. As did Emily Blunt.