The Fall Guy Fell Short (mostly at the box office)

The Fall Guy [2024]
Dir. David Leitch
126 min.

Brief Summary: After leaving the business one year earlier, battle-scarred stuntman Colt Seavers springs back into action when the star of a big studio movie suddenly disappears. As the mystery surrounding the missing actor deepens, Colt soon finds himself ensnared in a sinister plot that pushes him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt.

Film

Box office expectations for The Fall Guy were somewhere between inexplicably high and unreasonably low (just ask Indiewire). The film was projected to gross something north of $30 million in its opening weekend, an estimate based on the convergence and reliance on several factors including: (1) the popularity of its lead actors, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, both of whom are coming off the co-mega smash of Barbenheimer last summer; (2) the directorial stewardship of David Leitch, a renowned stunt coordinator/performer-turned-action-director whose work on the first John Wick movie, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Bullet Train is very highly-regarded for this brand of highly stylized action-comedy; and (3) the film took over the highly coveted "first weekend of May summer-kickstarter" slot that was vacated by Deadpool & Wolverine in the wake of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which is now slated to premiere later this summer instead. So in theory and on paper, Universal Pictures had a no doubt, can't-miss, surefire slam-dunk hit on its hands.

Or perhaps it only seemed as such. I recently learned from The Quorum, a website dedicated to film data research and tracking, that The Fall Guy was the first non-superhero movie since Mission: Impossible III in 2006 to release as the headliner for the first-ish weekend of May. That factoid isn't necessarily surprising, especially when you look at the list of films below. But it does signal some kind of "changing of the guard" or reversion back to a different kind of blockbuster summer movie event in a post-Top Gun: Maverick world. This scheduling switcheroo also presented the golden opportunity and wide-open runway for The Fall Guy to rake in the cash without much competition for at least a full week until Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes released on May 10. Again, insert the phrases, "no doubt," "can't miss," and "surefire slam-dunk."

Source: The Quorum

Merely weeks later and The Fall Guy is now considered a full-on box office flop by the one and only true metric that carries weight in this conversation: the box office. As of the time I'm writing this, the film has grossed an $129.4 million worldwide against its estimated budget of $130-135 million (with upwards of $20 million in marketing as well). Just getting back to financial sea level isn't enough for Universal Studios when a title like this has so much baked-in potential Breaking even doesn't equate to success in Hollywood – this isn't a golf, it's the movies. Oh, and speaking of movie theaters, the film is already available to rent on VOD (which is something I maybe wish I had realized before sitting in a nearly empty theater with three other people quietly chuckling and munching on popcorn). This 'quick!-to-streaming' maneuver is a course of action studios are willing to make only when they're either desperate to save their bottom line or want to promote another forthcoming release (I see you HBO for releasing Dune 2 on Max a bit earlier than expected to build some hype for Dune: Prophecy in the fall). In the case of The Fall Guy, Universal is clearly trying to save face, cut costs, and streamline their profits to reconcile any hope of a marginal return on investment...

Which let me tell you is a damn shame and unfair to the movie itself, because I for one really enjoyed The Fall Guy. Bogging down my writing flow to shoehorn in some overly thought out film criticism would kill the momentum, so I'll keep my retrospective peaks and pits simple and short. Basically, if "Ryan Gosling" isn't the first, last, or most frequently used words in your review of this film, you're missing the most important point. The same guy who was once fought off being typecast as the guy from The Notebook by taking on roles where he played quietly brooding and mysteriously intriguing men (mostly in Nicolas Winding Refn movies like Drive) has finally evolved into what is now his final movie star form. Yes, he was funny in The Nice Guys and his relentless commitment to the bit in Barbie showed another way for him to be fearless, but he I don't think he's ever leaned in to being the charming, prototypical leading man as much as he does in The Fall Guy. And yes, I realize that there is a part-satire, part-parody, and part-sight gag humor to it all, but that doesn't mean Gosling isn't relishing the spotlight. His efforts are matched by Emily Blunt, who is equally committed and makes the most of a part that seems half-baked on the page but fully realized in her performance. Together, the two of them make up for a lot of the film's shortcomings, including some of its messy pacing and disjointed tonality. Leitch certainly has the filmmaking chops and sense of visual playfulness to keep his audience interested, but The Fall Guy is built around and reliant upon the shared comedic chemistry of its two leading movie stars.

The Fall Guy [2024]

Despite it flopping, The Fall Guy still gets more right than wrong and delivers a movie with extremely charismatic performers that knows how to keep things moving and its audience laughing, which is more than most other turn-off-your-brain blockbusters in 2024 can say. So what exactly went wrong at the box office and why didn't people go see The Fall Guy? I feel like we ask ourselves this question every time a movie that should hit but doesn't (which is increasingly common in the mid-2020s). At a micro-level, I think there was a marketability hurdle stemming from the title of the movie. Think about: in 2021 there was Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds and in 2022 there was The Gray Man, which also starred Gosling in a brainless action flick. I guess the point is it can be hard to name your movie that feels almost like a composite of those two titles starring one of two very famous actors named Ryan. Am I overstating this? Maybe. But I can tell you that I personally have flubbed saying the words The Fall Guy at least a half dozen times this month. I'm just wondering if a different title might have helped even just a little bit. On a macro-level, we've seen that for theater-going audiences, most individuals have to be absolutely certain that a movie is somehow "important" enough (either event- or experience-wise) or financially-worthwhile for them to make the effort to get off their couch and make the trip off their couch and leave the house to watch it amongst strangers. And I totally get it, the movies can be expensive, especially if you go all out and make going into a big event. With rising costs at the theater and more competitive streaming options at home, fewer people than ever before view the act of moviegoing as an entertainment for the experience rather than entertainment for the sake of... well, entertainment. The Fall Guy is an attempted throwback to an era of a simpler times when movies could just be a fun way to enjoy oneself for two hours without thinking too hard and didn't need to dilute the starpower of its actors by putting them in a cape or against a CGI backdrop. When thought of in those terms, The Fall Guy delivers on its promise and earns its stripes.

The Fall Guy premiered at SXSW on March 12, 2024, and was released in the United States on May 3, by Universal Pictures. It is also available to stream VOD.

Froth

Seeing The Fall Guy at Chicago's Logan Theatre would typically mean popping in at one of several high quality brewers in Logan Square for a draft or two (or maybe even a flight if there's time). But weeknight screenings call for weeknight decision-making, so this beer pairing occurred at the theater during the movie. I opted to try the Crushinator, a session IPA from the always reliable Maplewood Brewing Company. This was a lower ABV, easy-drinking beer that was malt-forward with a slightly fruity finish. Apparently, this is only released through June, so if I want another round of the Crushinator, I'll have to get on that sooner than later. As always, Maplewood delivers the goods.