Ryan Gosling Blames Birds for the Failure of His 2016 Action Comedy Movie

Summary

• Ryan Gosling has had a number of notable roles over the years.
• His 2016 film didn't do well at the box office.
• Gosling's latest movie was produced for a much bigger budget.

Since 2022, when the first teaser for Greta Gerwig's pink-hued comedy Barbie was released, Ryan Gosling has been the talk of the town thanks to his role as Ken. This character earned Gosling an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but unfortunately he didn't win. This year, the actor stars in David Leitch's upcoming action comedy, The Fall Guy, opposite Oppenheimer's Emily Blunt.

While the new film has yet to be released, it's unlikely to surpass Barbie's $1.44 billion gross, but that doesn't necessarily mean The Fall Guy won't be successful in its own right. Ryan Gosling has been the star of a lot of movies over the years, and they have all had varying degrees of success. However, one action comedy he did almost flopped at the box office. And apparently, the actor blames birds. Angry Birds.

The Nice Guys

Released in May 2016, Shane Black's neo-noir buddy comedy had plenty of action as it followed Gosling's Holland March, a private investigator, and Russell Crowe's Jackson Healy, an enforcer, who are hired to investigate the disappearance of a young woman and porn actress who was believed dead by everyone but her aunt. As they delve deeper into the case, it becomes more dangerous and complex than it originally seemed.

Produced for a reported budget of $50 million, The Nice Guys only grossed $62.8 million during its theatrical run. This was likely due to the stiff competition it faced, with The Angry Birds Movie and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising opening on the same weekend, and Captain America: Civil War was still in theaters. As a result, Shane Black's action comedy only earned $11.2 at the box office in its opening week, which Ryan Gosling believes undermined any prospect of a sequel.

'So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against Angry Birds,' the actor recalled the premiere of The Nice Guys in a recent interview. 'So Angry Birds just, just destroyed us. Angry Birds got a sequel [and The Nice Guys didn't].'

The Fall Guy

It's hard to say if The Nice Guys failed because of the tough competition or if it just wasn't a good enough movie. But if we choose to believe in the former, we can actually try to predict how Ryan Gosling's new action comedy will perform at the box office when it's released on May 3.

Opening against a slew of other films, The Fall Guy has two main competitors – Jesse V. Johnson's spy thriller Chief of Station and Hayley Easton's horror thriller Something in the Water. Hopefully David Leitch's $125 million movie won't be a disappointment.

Source: Comic Book.