Ryan Gosling is finally bankable

A long-standing narrative surrounding Ryan Gosling is that he has always been more famous than he is actually a box office draw. He’s not box office poison or anything like that, but given how famous he is, and how widely respected he is as one of the best actors of his generation, you think he’d be hitting grand slams every time he opens a movie; but the reality is that for almost the entirety of his career, Ryan Gosling’s popularity didn’t necessarily translate to butts in seats.

Well, no more! Ryan Gosling is bankable at last, as Project Hail Mary, a movie which is 80% Ryan Gosling Alone On Screen And/Or Talking To A Rock, opened with $80.5 million domestic, and $140 million worldwide. This beats the original projected opening of $50 million domestic, as well as the revised projection of $60-70 million, too. Ryan Gosling finally sold a movie on his name alone.

And don’t “what about Barbie” me, that movie was sold on 1) Barbie, and 2) the combination of Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and Gosling. In fact, all of Gosling’s box office successes over the last 20 years have come when he works in an ensemble (Crazy Stupid Love, The Big Short, Barbie), or when he works as part of a romantic duo (La La Land, The Notebook). Dude duos don’t work for Gosling (Bladerunner 2049, The Nice Guys), and when his name is set up as the #1 draw, it hasn’t worked to date, either (Drive, First Man, The Fall Guy).

But maybe, finally, Gosling’s fame and his ability to sell tickets are aligning, because he IS Project Hail Mary. Well, him and the rock spider. But the film was sold as a Ryan Gosling star vehicle, and for once, people showed up. You can’t even say it’s the natural draw of a space movie, because First Man is also a space movie, and no one saw that. Maybe it’s just that after years of fluctuating between mainstream and eccentric indie projects, audiences finally trust that when Gosling goes Hollywood, the results are worth it (none of his failures are bad movies, a few of them are actually f-cking fantastic and deserve a second look. We should have at least two Nice Guys sequels by now).

This is also a big win for Amazon MGM, as they are rebuilding their distribution arm. MGM had a functioning distribution unit, but Amazon killed it when they bought the studio in the last decade, only to come back around to the idea that, actually, there is no economic driver for the film industry like theatrical distribution. What is it with tech companies disrupting functioning industries (read: ensh-ttifying if not outright killing them), and then reinventing the wheel and claiming they’re doing something groundbreaking? Every third month these guys are trying to reinvent buses or taxis or hotels. Anyway, this is proof Amazon MGM can get back into the business of successfully selling broad-appeal films. And just in the nick of time, too, as the Warner Bros. Discovery/Paramount Skydance merger is removing a distributor from the market.

But it’s mostly good news for Ryan Gosling, who has Star Wars: Starfighter on the horizon next summer. He doesn’t have to bear the weight of relaunching Star Wars into movie theaters, that falls on The Mandalorian and Grogu, but he is carrying the weight of introducing a new wave of non-Skywalker storytelling. At least we hope it’s non-Skywalker storytelling. Starfighter is set five years after The Rise of Skywalker, it’s supposed to be a standalone adventure, but we’ll see. The Star Wars brain trust keeps f-cking up “standalone adventure” and “new direction”. I have little faith.

But as a long-time fan of The Gos, I’m glad he’s finally found a groove that is working. Again, the problem has never been the quality of his work or his choices. He picks interesting projects with interesting people, and the work is always good. It just doesn’t always resonate with audiences, but he seems to finally be finding ways to connect with audiences and still satisfy his interest in eccentrics and quirky characters. He has, however, been on an unrelenting mainstream run this decade so far, so we are overdue for a Ryan Gosling Arty Trip Into The Unknown. It is time for Ryan Gosling to reunite with Nicolas Winding Refn and make something truly unwatchable. I am always here for a game of Ryan Gosling Dares You To Like This Movie.

Source