Ryan Gosling is reflecting on the reason he believes the 2016 action-comedy The Nice Guys didn’t score a sequel.
The Barbie actor told ComicBook.com, in an interview published online Tuesday, that there likely won’t be a follow-up because the original movie was overwhelmed by The Angry Birds Movie at the box office during its debut weekend.
“So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against Angry Birds,” Gosling explained. “So Angry Birds just, just destroyed us. Angry Birds got a sequel.” The Angry Birds Movie 2 premiered in 2019.
And The Fall Guy star was right, as the Shane Black-directed film had a tough battle during its opening weekend. It was not only up against Angry Birds but also Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Additionally, Captain America: Civil War was in its third weekend in theaters, so Marvel fans also played a factor.
Ultimately, the Warner Bros. movie couldn’t beat out Angry Birds, opening to an estimated $11.3 million, while the animated film opened to $39 million domestically. Overall, at the end of its box office run, The Nice Guys grossed an estimated $62 million on a $50 million budget.
The Nice Guys, which starred Gosling, Russell Crowe, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley and Yaya DaCosta, was set in Los Angeles in the 1970s and followed private eye Holland March (Gosling) and hired enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) as they team up in an unlikely partnership to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Amelia (Qualley).