Sick of franchise movies? We only have ourselves to blame

We can’t be upset at Hollywood for pumping out a stream of never-ending sequels when we allow more creative fare like ‘The Fall Guy’ to go bust, writes James Moore

Ryan Gosling in ‘The Fall Guy’, Universal’s surprise flop (AP)

The global box office has taken quite the fall since the heady days of Barbenhemier last summer – a phenomenon exemplified by Universal’s appropriately named new action comedy The Fall Guy.

The film looked to have everything going for it heading into the crucial summer season.

Two A-list stars – Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt – whose onscreen chemistry crackled even in the trailers.

A favourable critical response, summed up in The Independent’s own Clarisse Loughrey’s four-star review, where she called it a “sweat-drenched spectacle that celebrates the harmonious union between heart-stopping stunt work and charismatic movie stars”. She wasn’t alone in her assessment – review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes rated it 82 per cent fresh.

Crucially, it had a glut of money behind it. The lavishly funded promotional campaign tells you Universal thought it had a hit on its hands. It just never materialised.

Sure, the film topped the North American box office and plenty of others, but business was still much slower than had been expected. The global opening haul of $65m (£51m) was a disappointment, and despite a relatively light (50 per cent) fall in takings entering week two, indicative of positive word of mouth, the film has yet to meet its $130m estimated production budget after three weeks in cinemas.

If you add in the promotional spend – which is usually the same as a film’s production budget but, I suspect, may have been higher in this case – it looks like the studio will be taking an even bigger fall than the film’s protagonist Colt Seavers.

The Fall Guy is technically based on an old TV show, though one so old and obscure the film may as well be an original property. As such, expect Hollywood execs to double down on more familiar franchise fare – comic books, video games, and a never-ending array of sequels.

Studios regularly receive criticism for doing exactly that – but if we, the movie-going public, are not going to support them when they roll the dice and produce something semi-original, then can you really blame them? They’re not charities or arts bodies. Their job is to keep their shareholders happy – a tough job in an industry that has faced significant disruption from the rise of streaming.

Needless to say, following hot on the heels of The Fall Guy came the latest iteration in the long-running Planet of the Apes saga, the intended start of a new trilogy. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has roared its way to $240m, comfortably exceeding its production budget for Disney, which can now celebrate having a fourth movie to top $200m this year. The others were global box office leader Dune: Part Two, a Godzilla/King Kong team-up, and a fourth outing in the Kung Fu Panda series. No prizes for guessing what they all have in common.

What does this say about the future of cinema? The overall returns have to represent a real worry for cinema operators, especially now that Marvel, which seemed at one point to effortlessly pump out $1bn grossing hits, has lost its mojo and no longer provides a reliable tentpole for the summer season.

The decline in variety, creativity and quality has to be worrying to those who care about cinema and have little appetite for a future made up of tubby cartoon pandas and CGI monsters.

Horrified at the very idea? It’s time to use the bank holiday to investigate the art house, if you have one nearby. Good movies are still there to be found. But if we are to continue to see them in the venues they were made for, they need our support.