Ryan Gosling On Reason ‘The Nice Guys’ Didn’t Get A Sequel: “‘Angry Birds’ Just Destroyed Us”

Armando Tinoco

April 23, 2024 at 11:08 p.m.·1 min read

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe starred in The Nice Guys in 2016, but the movie didn’t get a sequel despite its positive reviews.

In a recent interview, the Barbie actor says he thinks the reason the action comedy film directed by Shane Black didn’t get a sequel was the opening box office numbers.

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“So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against Angry Birds,” Gosling told Comic Book in an interview. “So Angry Birds just, just destroyed us. Angry Birds got a sequel.”

The Angry Birds Movie had an opening weekend of $38M, easily topping The Nice Guys, which generated only $11.2M at the box office. On the same weekend, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising opened to a $21.7M weekend. The films also had to fend off Marvel fans, with Captain America: Civil War earning $32.9M in its third weekend.

The Nice Guys was reportedly made with an estimated budget of $50M and ended its box office run with $62.8M. The Angry Birds Movie got a sequel, which premiered in 2019, but the office results were not the same as their predecessor, earning $16.3M over six days.

The Nice Guys is set in 1977 L.A. and centers on private eye Holland March (Gosling) and enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) who team up to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl.

Gosling and Crowe shared film credits with Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Keith David and Kim Basinger. Robert Downey Jr. made an cameo in an uncredited role.

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