The 2024 Ryan Gosling film Flop has finally found its audience on Amazon Prime Video

Movie stardom is very difficult to achieve, and even more difficult to maintain. Once an actor finds that breakout role, he immediately faces the challenge of giving his fans what they want, while also, depending on his level of ambition, taking on roles that will hopefully expand (or at least maintain) his range. From falling into the rut of creativity). Some actors correctly identify that their audience is not looking for a lot of contrast (John Wayne is a perfect example of this), while others are intent on throwing a curveball here and there (as Sylvester Stallone unwisely did with such poorly received comedies as “Rhinestone” and “Stop! Or Mom’s Gonna Shoot”). If you mess with expectations too much, fans will stop believing in your accomplishments.

At least Wayne and Stallone had a cinematic style they could return to as needed to please their fans. Meanwhile, A star like Ryan Gosling It should take it picture after picture because it broke through to critical acclaim before connecting commercially. For those of us who didn’t recognize Gosling as a mouse in The All New Mickey Mouse Club, he exploded in 2001 with his violent portrayal of a Jewish skinhead in Henry Penn’s The Believer. His first taste of Hollywood stardom arrived three years later when he starred in the country’s cinemas opposite Rachel McAdams in The Notebook. From there, Gosling remained a critical favorite by tackling very different characters (think the gap between “Lars and the Real Girl” and “Drive”), while his more commercial efforts (“Gangster Squad” and “The Nice Guys”). ) It came up short at the box office.

After receiving a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his ridiculous performance as Kane Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster “Barbie” movie. It felt like Gosling had finally threaded the needle of commercial and critical adoration. It will certainly be bankable from this point on. not quite. Or maybe actually. It all depends on how the industry wants to read the late popularity of “The Fall Guy.”

According to the FlixPatrol website“The Fall Guy” is currently the most-watched movie on Amazon Prime Video after debuting there last week. That puts it above two other underperforming films at the box office in “Red One” and “The Creator,” and more traditionally successful films like “The Equalizer 2” and “A Quiet Place: Day One.”

While “The Fall Guy” was not a commercial sweep With a global gross of $181 million, it must have lost Universal a significant amount of money due to a budget estimated to be between $125 million and $150 million. Although critics generally liked the film (/ Jacob Hall loved the movie), moviegoers haven’t been flocking to theaters showing the action-comedy that kicked off the 2024 summer movie season. Whether that’s because most viewers aren’t familiar with the TV series it’s based on (“The Fall Guy” ended its network run in 1986) or just because In the mood to watch a movie about a hot guy (in this case, shame on her), those box office numbers don’t lie.

On the plus side, people who saw “The Fall Guy” enjoyed it theatrically (it earned an A- Cinemascore), and there’s no reason to think it’s playing any differently at home. I’m still shocked that it didn’t catch on at first, but maybe mainstream audiences only show up when Gosling plays a great romantic lead or a really cute himbo. It’s a strange place for one of the sexiest movie stars working today to find himself.