The past few months have been a demonstration of sorts for Hollywood and moviegoers on how the industry is operating while a pandemic is still going on. Although studios have become confident enough this year to start premiering their films, some of them have been hedging their bets by including simultaneous release dates on streaming services, oftentimes on their exclusive platforms. This practice has been accused by theater operators of cutting into their traditional box office earnings, and by film stars like Scarlett Johansson of reducing their potential box-office take. As if to refute the streaming fallback by content producers, sci-fi comedy “Free Guy” premiered this weekend to surprising results.
The Associated Press reports that the Ryan Reynolds starrer “Free Guy,”
produced originally for distribution by 20th Century Fox but now
released by Disney-owned 20th Century Studios, raked in a
respectable $24.8 million after premiering last Friday, August 13, exclusively
on cinemas with no simultaneous streaming debut. This was a gamble, as studios
with streaming services seemed to capitalize on the Delta COVID variant forcing
people to stay home and watch online. “Free Guy” however had significant pull
in both its lead star and story concept to fill the North American box office
unlike any film released during the pandemic.
“Free Guy” tells the story of Guy
(Reynolds), a videogame non-playable character/NPC that is cast as a bank
teller in the open-world massively multiplayer online game “Free City.”
Originally content with following his programming-decided routine, Guy has a revelation
when he receives a pair of sunglasses allowing him to see his world as “Free
City” players see it, a virtual environment with character stats and abilities
and more. He finds himself helping another player (Jodie Comer) who is looking
for something in the game world, while “Free City” developer Antwan (Taika
Waititi) tries to reprogram Guy or shut him down to preserve a company secret.
Originally slated to premiere
August of last year, “Free Guy” was a 2020 big-screen victim of the pandemic
and was moved to 2021. In addition to its positive box-office performance
(because of no streaming alternative) and in spite of Delta variant concerns,
the film has also scored decent reviews from critics. Ryan Reynolds actually
announced on social media that Disney has given 20th Century Studios
the go-ahead to develop a sequel. Once it does become available for streaming, “Free
Guy” will not come to Disney+ first (being a 20th Century Fox
production), so that is one other thing to consider.
Image courtesy of Forbes
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