Universal’s THE FALL GUY jumped out ahead of all other movies, earning $28.5M in its opening weekend. The total for all films came in at $73.4M whereas last year on this same weekend total sales were $160.0M led by GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 which opened with $118.4M.
Despite a respectable opening for THE FALL GUY, the distance between 2023 and 2024 continued to grow. After thirteen weeks of the year, 2024 was down by 10% compared to 2023. After adding in the last four weeks, that deficit has ballooned to 22%. This weekend alone was 54% lower than last year, which only compounds the problem.
On the bright side, we expect the trend to stop and see 2024 gain ground for the rest of the month, based on a series of appealing films in the upcoming release schedule. THE KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES on 5/10, IF on 5/17, and FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA on 5/24 all expected to have opening weekends of $50M or more. Therefore, the current moment is likely to be the lowest point this year when comparing 2024 results to those from 2023.
THE FALL GUY is an action-packed romantic comedy based loosely on the 1980s hit television series on ABC that starred Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, a tough character who balances two jobs as a full-time stuntman and occasional bounty hunter. Majors was given the lead part in “The Fall Guy” after touching fame and success in the 1970s as the bionic super-human Steve Austin in the TV series “The Six Million Dollar Man.” Now 85 years old, Majors has a charming cameo appearance at the end of THE FALL GUY re-teamed with Heather Thomas who appeared alongside Majors in the original series.
Ryan Gosling tackles the role of Colt Seavers in the movie, with Emily Blunt co-starring as his ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno. Judy is directing her first feature film METALSTORM and is surprised to learn that Colt has been hired on to perform stunts for its star Tom Ryder, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Colt uncovers a conspiracy revolving around Tom and works to uncover exactly what is going on, both on the film set and in real life.
The movie is directed by David Leitch, who started his Hollywood career as a stunt performer and coordinator, eventually graduating as an actor and now a well-known director of action films. His prior work includes ATOMIC BLONDE (2017), DEADPOOL 2 (2018), HOBBS AND SHAW (2019) and BULLET TRAIN (2022).
The movie showcases the on-screen chemistry between Gosling and Blunt. Both critics and audiences are enjoying their love/hate banter, giving it scores of 83% and 87% from critics and audiences. Ryan Gosling’s movies have generated over $2B+ in worldwide box office to date, with the success of last year’s BARBIE fresh in everyone’s minds. Here is a look at Gosling’s top-grossing movies over his three-decade career.
Ryan Gosling’s Top Grossing Movies
- BARBIE(7/21/23) – Opening $162.M, Total Domestic $636.2M, Total Worldwide $1.432B
- LA LA LAND (12/9/16) – Opening $881K, Total Domestic $151.0M, Total Worldwide $433.9M
- BLADE RUNNER 2049 (10/6/17) – Opening $32.8M, Total Domestic $92.1M, Total Worldwide $257.8M
- CRAZY STUPID LOVE (7/29/11) – Opening $19.1M, Total Domestic $84.4M, Total Worldwide $146.5M
- REMEMBER THE TITANS (9/29/00) – Opening $20.9M, Total Domestic $115.7M, Total Worldwide $136.7M
- THE FALL GUY (4/26/24) – Opening $28.5M
THE FALL GUY is the third biggest opening of Gosling’s career, after BARBIE and BLADE RUNNER 2049. It is also one of Gosling’s most expensive productions, with a production budget estimated to be between $125M and $150M. Based on that investment, the movie will need to earn at least $300M worldwide to be profitable.
STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE finished in second place by grossing $8.1M across 2,600 North American theatres. This is a 25th-anniversary re-release of the fourth movie released in the legendary STAR WARS franchise. It had already sold more than $1B worldwide between its original 1999 release and 2012 3D re-release. Written and directed by George Lucas, the film stars Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Frank Oz.
The story focuses on two Jedi warriors, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, who move fast to avoid a blockade by the villainous Trade Federation. In the course of their travels, they meet a remarkable 9-year-old slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who has unusually strong powers of the Force. Qui-Gon becomes convinced that he is the prophesied “Chosen One” who is destined to restore balance to the Force.
This weekend’s re-release of EPISODE I follows last year’s re-release of STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI which earned $5.1M in its opening weekend. Fans will have to wait two more years for a fresh installment of the STAR WARS franchise, with THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU opening on 5/22/2026.
Last week’s top movie CHALLENGERS fell to third place this weekend with $7.6M, a decline of 49% from its opening. Its 10-day total stands at $29.5M domestic and $42.1M worldwide, which makes it the highest-grossing tennis-themed sports movie of all time. CHALLENGERS’ next hurdle will be to hit $125M worldwide, which is the point at which it will become profitable after $50M was spent on its production. Many consider it to already be a success for its star Zendaya. CHALLENGERS is the movie with the spotlight on Zendaya alone, without an ensemble cast of other A-list stars.
TAROT from Sony finished in fourth place with a three-day opening total of $6.5M. Studios have served up an “every-other-week” menu of horror films this year, with ABIGAIL as the most recent offering two weekends ago. That film has earned $22.8M domestic over 17 days of release. TAROT’s plot follows a group of college friends who use a cursed deck of tarot cards to determine their fortunes, and then start dying in ways spelled out by the cards. The ones who remain alive try desperately to understand the mystery of the cards so they can avoid a similar fate.
This is the first feature movie written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg. It is based on the 1992 novel “Horrorscope” by author Nicholas Adams. The movie stars Harriet Slatter (INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, “Belgravia: The Next Chapter” on MGM+) and Jacob Batalon (Ned Leeds from five MCU superhero films).
Bruising Rotten Tomatoes scores of 12% from critics and 58% from audiences do not bode well for the prospects of this movie. However, it is also a prime example of a low-budget horror flick with a skinny production budget of $8M. Therefore, it will most likely hit profitability after only two weeks in theatres.
GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE refuses to go away and took fifth place with another $4.5M this weekend, a decline of only 38% from last week After 38 days, the monster hit has earned $188M domestic and $524M worldwide. Up to this point, GODZILLA from 2014 has held the crown as the highest-grossing title in the 70-year history of the franchise, earning $525.0M worldwide. In the next few days, GODZILLA X KONG will cross that mark to take over first place. Thus far, it has been one of the few bright spots of the year.
Where Are We as of 5/2
After 17 weeks, the 2024 year-to-date box office stands at 78% compared to those same weeks last year and 60% of the totals at this time in 2019.
