Despite receiving critical acclaim and fan support, Ryan Gosling doubts that ‘The Nice Guys,’ starring Gosling and Russell Crowe, will get a sequel. He attributes this partly to the film’s unfortunate timing, as it opened against the blockbuster hit ‘Angry Birds.’
During the press tour for his upcoming film ‘The Fall Guy,’ Gosling discussed the situation, stating that a sequel’s success is often determined by a film’s opening weekend performance. ‘We opened up against Angry Birds,’ Gosling explained. ‘And Angry Birds just, just destroyed us.’
A review of the U.S. box office charts for May 2016 confirms Gosling’s statement. ‘The Nice Guys’ debuted with a domestic box office take of $11.2 million, significantly behind ‘Angry Birds: The Movie,’ which raked in $38.1 million.
However, it’s important to note that ‘Angry Birds’ was not the sole factor in ‘The Nice Guys’ box office struggles. It also faced competition from ‘Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,’ which earned $21.7 million during the same weekend. Industry experts argued that the release of both films on the same date was a strategic blunder, as they targeted similar audiences.
Additionally, ‘The Nice Guys’ had to contend with the ongoing box office success of ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ which ranked as the second-highest grossing film that weekend with $32.9 million.
Despite these challenges, ‘The Nice Guys’ was intended to lay the groundwork for future installments. Director Shane Black had previously hinted at the possibility of sequels, though the film’s disappointing box office performance cast a shadow over those plans.
There were also reports of a female-led TV series in development based on ‘The Nice Guys,’ but no further updates have been released since.
Ultimately, the box office competition proved to be a formidable obstacle for ‘The Nice Guys,’ diminishing its chances of a franchise expansion.
