Box Office: 'The Fall Guy' Wants What 'The Roundup' Already Has

Don Lee's fourth Crime City installment topped last weekend's global box office. Universal hopes their Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt action comedy can likewise become a star-powered franchise.

Universal opened their Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt action comedy The Fall Guy in 38 overseas markets last weekend, earning $8.5 million for their troubles. That’s neither awful nor spectacular, coming in (like-for-like) between Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s The Lost City (which eventually earned $88 million outside North America and $105 million stateside) but just below Brad Pitt’s Bullet Train (which ended with $136 million overseas and $103 million domestically). Those were the two big “Will audiences still show up to old-school star-driven crowdpleasers?” tests of 2022, and both did pretty well. However, the top movie of the weekend globally was Don Lee’s The Roundup: Punishment. The South Korean action sequel earned $24 million ($26 million counting previews), with $21 million coming from Korea. It’s an ironic example of the thing Hollywood wants most: a *new* star-and-concept-driven theatrical franchise not reliant on IP or prior box office success.