Why Ryan Reynolds' 'Free Guy' Is Sticking To 2020 Theatrical Release

It's existence as a video game-based movie, starring one of the last "butts in seats" movie stars and with a whole Christmas season to itself, Free Guy may become 2020's first hit movie since...uh, Sonic The Hedgehog 

Ryan Reynolds in 'Free Guy' (CREDIT: 20th Century Studio)

                     by Jack Linsdell

To his credit, Ryan Reynolds knows how to market a movie. We had the various "in costume" appearances on late night chat shows to promote Tim Miller's Deadpool, and then the off-the-wall short No Good Dead to promote David Leitch's Deadpool 2. For last year's Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Reynolds filmed a video of himself being interviewed for "Becoming Pikachu" by his wife Blake Lively which has amassed 7.2 million views on his YouTube channel. And, now for Shawn Levy's upcoming Free Guy, he does it again, this time in the form of a zoom call with the cast. The minute-long clip plays upon the surge of date changes and delays for most of 2020's biggest movies (most recently Daniel Craig's 007 flick No Time To Die), with Reynolds and the cast all giving different dates for the flick to be released to "cover themselves". As usual, it's another funny and highly unique piece of marketing that guarantees audience interest/awareness from it's social media popularity already (1.7 million views so far). 

Whatever you think of Reynolds as an actor (let's just say Women in Gold, Just Friends and The Hitman's Bodyguard are unusually excellent), you can't deny he's probably one of the last "butts in seats" movie stars around. However, even then that's only when he's in a movie that audiences actually want to see (Deadpool, 6 Underground) or being one part of a two-hander with another big, popular actor (Safe House, The Hitman's Bodyguard). That's the difference between The Proposal ($317 million worldwide on a $30 million budget) and Self/less ($30 million on a $26 million budget). Anyway, back to Free Guy and it's partly because of Reynolds' unique commercial appeal that 20th Century Studio have stuck with (for now) the December 11th 2020 release date. 

As for the movie, Free Guy looks "fine, I guess". The flick, also produced by Reynolds, follows a bank teller called Guy (yes, that's right) who realises he's a background character in an open world video game called Free City that'll soon go offline. Look, although it comes across as a sort of "usual video game-based movie with a bit of Stranger Than Fiction thrown in", the core hook is both highly original and interesting enough to pique my interest. Also, with the likes of Jodie Comer (BBC's Killing Eve) and Taika Waititi co-starring, both of whom are very emerging and one-of-a-kind actors, Free Guy feels appealing enough to warrant a cinema trip. Director Shawn Levy tends to make very crowd-pleasing movies (Night in The Museum) and both his 2013 Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy The Internship and Paul Giamatti-led Big Fat Liar are immensely funny movies that I rate very highly. So, Free Guy has a lot going for it in it's sell (crowd-pleasing director, unique hook, existence as a video game movie etc.) which is also partly why it's sticking to theatrical release in 2020 just as everything has has run for the hills. 

Both Jake Kasdan's Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level have thrived in the Christmas season as star-driven, video game movies. The 2017 fantasy flick earned a whopping $962 million worldwide (on a $90 million budget), whilst it's sequel earned a still impressive $800 million (on a $120 million budget) global in the same Christmas spot in 2019. Add in recent successes for Jim Carrey's Sonic The Hedgehog ($306 million/$80 million), Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider ($274 million/$90 million) and Reynolds' own Detective Pikachu ($433 million/$150 million) and the video game genre is as popular as ever. 

There's no doubt that Free Guy is a movie that audiences want to see. Whether it's the flick's existence as a video game movie, the popularity of it's lead star or the unique hook, you can see why 20th Century Studio have stuck to a 2020 theatrical release. Hell, if you add in the lack of movies (let alone big blockbusters) this year and it's existence as a fantasy piece of escapism during the Christmas holidays (when the kids are off) and it could easily break out. Although it's not yet rated, the rumoured R-rating hasn't stopped the likes of Reynolds' Deadpool flicks breaking out (heck even The Hitman's Bodyguard is getting a sequel next year) from being big hits. And, I'm sure the budget is cheap enough that grosses along the lines of that Samuel L Jackson/Gary Oldman/Salma Hayek flick ($180 million on a $60 million budget) would be just fine. 

Reynolds' unique marketing approach to his movies clearly works, helping to (at the very least) drum up lots of free social media and online chatter for his latest project. Free Guy may have already been a hit due to it's unique hook and cast of emerging/niche actors, but now as the only game in town with a Christmas season all to it's self, it might be just that much bigger. 

Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howry and Taika Waititi arrives in theatres December 11th 2020. Well...for now at least.