Why Free Guy’s Opening Weekend Box Office Was Better Than Expected

Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy has become an unexpected sensation, gaining a much higher opening weekend box office haul than anticipated. Free Guy, helmed by Stranger Things director Shawn Levy, follows a Non-Player Character bank teller named Guy in the video game Free City after he suddenly breaks away from his background status and becomes a hero of the open-world game. After interacting with a player who he says is the woman of his dreams, Guy discovers she exists in the real world as one of the game’s algorithm creators who must find proof of Free City’s creator stealing her idea before he wipes the game.

Had the current slate of new releases premiered before the pandemic, any one of them would have had a much higher expected box office haul. As COVID-19 continues to rampage across the globe, movie theaters are still seeing a stagnant decrease in normal audience rates. As such, films like Black Widow, The Suicide Squad, and Space Jam 2 have largely underperformed at the box office, though these specific projects were also simultaneously released via streaming services. Even M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, which had a strict wide theatrical release, barely outdid its forecasted $15 million in opening weekend earnings. Free Guy was only expected to earn $15-17 million but impressively brought in a domestic intake of $28.4 million, which effectively beat The Suicide Squad’s $26 million for a surprisingly successful opening weekend.

For being released in conjunction with major franchise films, Free Guy pulled off a box office feat hardly expected for an action comedy with no prior IP. One reason for Free Guy’s miraculous success is that the actual film is much better than the trailers led audiences to believe. Many figured it would simply be a redo of Spielberg’s Ready Player One or Adam Sandler’s Pixels, whereas Free Guy introduced multiple intersecting storylines that played off one another in a fresh way that couldn’t help but be infectiously enjoyable. The trailers mainly focused on the comedic quips of Ryan Reynolds, physical comedy beats, and exploration of a video game world come to life, but Free Guy had so much more heart to offer. Word of mouth and positive reviews about how surprisingly fun Free Guy was led to a conjuring of audiences that might never have considered attending what the trailers implied the movie to be.

Similarly, Ryan Reynolds’ Guy is following the trend of contagiously optimistic and kind protagonists in a world of cynics. Take Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso for example; a series about a hospitable southern American football coach going overseas to lead an English soccer team may not have had the most exciting premise, but Ted Lasso’s overwhelming kindness and optimism helped turn the series into a bona fide hit. In a world where most films and series focus on the dark, depressing aspects of life in one form or another, Free Guy finds a lighthearted, family-friendly way to explore the modern issues of IP manipulation, identity crises, and corporate greed. Even for the younger audiences who wouldn’t understand the underlying themes of the movie, Free Guy offers an enjoyable experience that advocates for kids playing kinder games like The Sims over the violently crass GTA V. People are ready for a change in theaters to go see a movie that makes one smile throughout and feel better about humanity walking away, and Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy gives them exactly what they’re looking for.

Another reason for Free Guy’s unprecedented success at the box office can be pointed to the fact that it had a sole theatrical release. Although owned by Disney, the company decided not to – or wasn’t able to, given the movie originated at 20th Century Fox before the buyout – have a simultaneous streaming release via Disney+’s Premier Access. While many individuals and families still didn’t (and won’t) make the trek to a movie theater during the pandemic, Free Guy definitely pulled in an audience who would’ve rather seen it at home out of convenience but went to the theater as their only choice.

About The Author

Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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