The Fall Guy constitutes another critical hit in the career of Ryan Gosling, yet the movie’s box office performance also confirms an uncomfortable truth about the actor’s record. Since his debut in 1996’s unheralded Frankenstein in Me, Gosling has established himself as one of the biggest names in the industry. However, despite this well-earned reputation, his career has not been completely plain sailing – a situation confirmed by The Fall Guy‘s somewhat surprising performance.

Starring Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Hannah Waddingham, The Fall Guy is a highly stylized romantic comedy that makes full use of Gosling’s natural charm and aptitude for action. Gosling features as stuntman Colt Seavers, who improbably finds himself surrounded by real-life danger when a movie star goes missing. The movie has been widely acclaimed by critics, securing 83% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and winning praise for the chemistry between Blunt and Gosling. Despite this, however, other aspects of The Fall Guys have underwhelmed, potentially revealing a bigger problem with Gosling’s career in the process.

The Fall Guy’s Disappointing Box Office Performance Explained

Despite being praised by critics, and rating extremely highly among cinema-goers, The Fall Guy has underwhelmed at the box office. On a budget of between $125-150 million, the movie took just $28.5 million domestically over its opening weekend, combining with worldwide earnings for a total of $65.4 million. Working on the basis that a movie needs to make approximately two-and-a-half times its budget in order to break even, this leaves The Fall Guy way short of the estimated $350-400 million needed to rank as a success.

There are several possible explanations for the movie’s disappointing opening. Crucially, The Fall Guy is an entirely original IP, unable to draw on the success of a supporting franchise. 2024 has also been a relatively slow year for theatrical releases, with Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong, and Kung Fu Panda 4 so far the only movies to pass the $500 million mark globally. Nevertheless, The Fall Guy‘s positive critical and audience reaction hints at something more surprising hindering its performance – perhaps to do with Gosling himself.

Ryan Gosling Has Had Multiple Great Movies Underperform At The Box Office In The Last Decade

As surprising as it may seem, The Fall Guy is actually just the latest Ryan Gosling project to underperform at the box office. Previous disappointments have included Blade Runner 2049, The Nice Guys, and First Man – all of which enjoyed critical acclaim, yet failed to make much of a financial impact. This indicates that, despite his well-earned status as a leading Hollywood star, Ryan Gosling isn’t necessarily enough of a box office draw by himself to justify leading man status in a typical summer blockbuster.

It’s important to note that Gosling has had real financial success. Projects like La La Land and especially Barbie have been incredibly lucrative, highlighting that he certainly isn’t a blockbuster albatross. However, both these examples either saw Gosling supporting a more bankable star (Emma Stone in La La Land, Margot Robbie in Barbie), benefitting from a pre-existing intellectual property, or both in the case of Barbie. The disappointing conclusion is that projects that Gosling leads – however critically successful – are not guaranteed financial reward.

Ryan Gosling’s Career Cannot Just Be Defined By Box Office

Although The Fall Guy continues a slightly disappointing Ryan Gosling trend, it also reinforces the reality that its impossible to judge the Canadian-born star’s movie career based on box office earnings alone. Unlike many contemporary stars who have carved out a niche in the industry and stuck to it, Gosling has consistently pushed boundaries with his work – finding critical success in every genre he’s tried. While he has featured in more traditional movies like The Notebook, he has also appeared in more provocative independent projects like Drive and Only God Forgives, highlighting his commitment to pushing boundaries.

Given that he has been just as invested in creating deliberately uncommercially-friendly movies as blockbusters, it’s clear that Gosling himself is intent on securing a legacy beyond box office records. While The Fall Guy‘s performance is a disappointing indictment of how audiences respond to untested, original stories, it does not necessarily make Gosling’s career a failure. While financial performance is an important factor in determining a movie’s viability, it is not the only marker of success.