The Fall Guy Thursday night previews jump off with $3.15 million at the box office

The summer movie season is upon us. Ryan Gosling’s new film from David Leitch is a love letter to the stunt world and the promotion for the film has seen a lot of fun developments. Gosling and SNL cast member Mikey Day reprise their roles from the viral sketch where they resemble Beavis and Butt-head for the premiere. Additionally, the red carpet would feature some amazing live sequences from stunt performers, as well as Gosling fighting off a number of henchmen while appearing on talk shows.

Deadline has reported that the new action movie has kicked off its run on Thursday with $3.15M from showtimes that began at 5PM as well as Wednesday advance screenings. Analysts expect The Fall Guy to reach $30M+ in its opening gambit, with some studio execs saying the film could reach $35-40 million. Previously, The Fall Guy was scheduled to release a couple months earlier on March 1st, but Universal would push the premiere later as Disney/Marvel Studios delayed Deadpool & Wolverine to the end of July. The Fall Guy cost a reported $130 million to produce and while the numbers estimated for the opening aren’t typical for high-action summer fares, this year will definitely show an unnatural nature of performances due to the delays caused by the union strikes of last year.

The Fall Guy is receiving a warm reception as it gets a certified fresh rating at 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, and our own Chris Bumbray had a blast with the film, saying, “The Fall Guy really is a terrific summer action movie and a throwback to a different (better) time in genre movie-making. More than anything, it’s a tribute to the stunt industry and a demand that it gets the recognition it deserves, with the point made over and over that CGI action is lame and can’t hold a candle to the old ways. I’m inclined to agree.” You can view his full review HERE.

The new film adds to the newfound popularity of Ryan Gosling as the actor takes on more commercial roles and has said he will take less and less dramatically intense ones, “I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place,” Gosling said. “This moment is what I feel like trying to read the room at home and feel like what is going to be best for all of us. The decisions I make, I make them with [wife] Eva [Mendes], and we make them with our family in mind first.”