Despite being one of the most anticipated movies of 2024, The Fall Guy fell short in its box office performance, but it’s nothing compared to another Ryan Gosling-led movie from eight years ago that was also a box office letdown. Ryan Gosling has been going through a great run in his career since 2016 after starring in the action comedy The Nice Guys and the musical drama La La Land, for which he was nominated for different awards. Fresh off the massive success of Barbie, Gosling moved on with the action comedy The Fall Guy, directed by David Leitch.

Loosely based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, The Fall Guy follows Colt Seavers (Gosling), a Hollywood stunt performer for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who abandons his career after a stunt goes wrong. Over a year later, Colt returns to action as Ryder is missing, and he’s tasked by producer Gail Meyer to find him. Despite counting on the talents of Gosling, Johnson, and Emily Blunt, along with Leitch’s impressive visual style and stunts, The Fall Guy didn’t do as expected at the box office, but it was nothing compared to the failure of The Nice Guys.

The Nice Guys’ Box Office Performance Was More Disappointing Than The Fall Guy’s

The Nice Guys Didn’t Succeed At The Box Office As It Should Have

Directed by Shane Black, The Nice Guys is a buddy action comedy written by Black and Anthony Bagarozzi. Set in 1977, The Nice Guys follows single father and private detective Holland March (Gosling) who is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of a famous adult film star named Misty Mountains. His investigation leads him to Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley), who hires violent enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) to scare March away. However, after being interrogated by two hitmen, Healy reluctantly teams up with March to find Amelia, who has gone missing.

The Nice Guys was well-received by critics, who praised its humor, tone, and the performances of Crowe and Gosling, who turned out to be a surprisingly great comedic pair. The Nice Guys currently holds a 91% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience didn’t entirely agree with critics, giving it a 79% score. The critics’ praise for The Nice Guys wasn’t enough to draw people to watch it in theaters, leading to its disappointing box office performance.

With a budget of $50 million, The Nice Guys grossed $62.8 million, while The Fall Guy had a budget of $125-150 million and grossed $166.6 million. It’s not just the numbers that made The Nice Guys’ box office failure a bigger letdown than The Fall Guy’s, but also the fact that it was a better and funnier comedy than The Fall Guy, with a lot more potential for a sequel that can no longer be thanks to its box office disappointment.

Why The Nice Guy Failed At The Box Office

The Nice Guy’s Box Office Fail Was Undeserved

The Nice Guys had everything it needed to become a success, with a story that mixed mystery, comedy, and action, the unbelievable chemistry between Gosling and Crowe, and the star power of both. The Nice Guys’ box office performance wasn’t just disappointing, but also surprising given the movie’s quality and good reviews, but The Nice Guys had strong competition when it came out. The Nice Guys was released alongside the comedy Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and the animated movie The Angry Birds Movie, both becoming box office hits.

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising was very well received by critics and grossed $108 million against a budget of $35 million, while The Angry Birds Movie, while not the critics’ favorite, grossed $352.3 million against a $73 million budget. Neighbors 2 carried on with the success of its first movie, while The Angry Birds Movie not only successfully appealed to a young audience, but it came from a very popular IP, guaranteeing its success no matter how good or bad the movie really is.

Neighbors 2 also shared the same demographic as The Nice Guys, but had the advantage that the audience was already familiar with its cast, tone, and type of story, while The Nice Guys was completely new and the odd (but great) pair of Gosling/Crowe might not have appealed to many.

Why The Fall Guy Also Underperformed At The Box Office

Audiences Didn’t Give The Fall Guy A Chance

The Fall Guy had an unexpected competitor at the box office: Tarot, which, despite negative reviews, ended up grossing $45.4 million against an $8 million budget. However, what seems to have hurt The Fall Guy’s box office performance the most was that it’s mostly a non-IP movie. Although it’s based on the 1980s TV show of the same name, this wasn’t common knowledge, so for most viewers, The Fall Guy was a completely new story. In addition to that, The Fall Guy TV show wasn’t the most popular of its time, so it wouldn’t have been a hook for the audience.

The Fall Guy also became a victim of its big budget, though it was absolutely justified due to all its impressive stunts, visual effects, sets, and more. Blockbusters with big budgets have struggled in recent years to make profits, and the same ended up happening to The Fall Guy. The Nice Guys and The Fall Guy didn’t deserve their disappointing box office performances, but the former’s was a lot worse.