Disney believed in Free Guy‘s theatrical outlook at the box office and never thought twice to put on streaming and it paid off. On Monday, the Ryan Reynolds action-comedy grossed $108.8M domestically and $193.6M internationally bringing its worldwide box office total to $302.4M. The milestone marks the fifth film to do it this year along with Godzilla vs Kong, F9, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
The film was Disney’s first real return to the theatrically exclusive experience since the start of the pandemic. While Disney’s other projects were either released on Disney+ with Premier Access or just exclusively on the streamer with no additional fees. It is already the third highest-grossing Hollywood movie in the Chinese market since cinemas reopened in July 2020, where it opened on August 27 as the first major studio movie to the market after the summer blackout. Its gross to date there is $89M.
In other international markets, Free Guy is seeing solid success with numbers such as UK ($21.2M), Russia ($10.8M), France ($5.2M), Saudi Arabia ($4.7M), Germany ($4.6M), Japan ($4.5M), Australia ($4.3M), Spain ($3.3M) and Mexico ($3.3M).
Read: ‘Shang-Chi’ Number One For Third Week, Disney Dominates With 60% Of Box Office
The success has led Disney and 20th Century Studios to begin mapping out ideas for a Free Guy 2, which has yet to officially get the greenlight by the thstudio. That said, I’d expect a sequel announcement from the studio before year’s end.
In Free Guy, Reynolds plays Guy, a bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, decides to become the hero of his own story…one he rewrites himself. Now in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way…before it is too late.
Free Guy also stars Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Lil Rel Howery (Uncle Drew), Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Utkarsh Ambudkar (Mulan), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), Free Guy is directed by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn and a story by Lieberman. The film is produced by Ryan Reynolds, p.g.a., Shawn Levy, p.g.a., Sarah Schechter, Greg Berlanti, and Adam Kolbrenner with Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, George Dewey, Dan Levine, and Michael Riley McGrath serving as executive producers.
