Ken Kao says if a sequel could be financially viable, it’s not off the table.
While it was a hit with critics, 2016’s The Nice Guys failed to make a major impact at the box office, though its availability on streaming platforms has seen it grow a passionate following. The nature of the concept, with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe starring as private detectives, could easily translate to a franchise, yet that initial financial disappointment prevented any such follow-up opportunities from taking shape. Producer on the project Ken Kao recently addressed whether a sequel is definitively dead, noting that if such a project could be brought to life in a way that is both affordable and profitable, the concept could be revived.
“Funny enough, [producer] Joel Silver had reached out to a mutual acquaintance of mine and brought up Nice Guys this past week, and it sparked a conversation about exactly [that]. Like, ‘What would it take, maybe, to get [The Nice Guys] to happen again?'” Kao confirmed with Screen Rant. “And I think that we just have to make it on a budget. I think that continues to be the producers’ challenge and the filmmakers’ challenge now.”
He continued, “I think the sign of the times is that we’ve just got to make films in a sustainable and responsible way. We can’t keep having movies that don’t work at the box office, and it seems like the streamers aren’t going to just cut blank checks anymore. So we’ve got to figure out a way in this industry to make movies in ways that reward the people that make them. That also are made in a contained way where those that are releasing the films can continue to feel incentivized to do so. And I think that’s the task, that’s the challenge for us, as producers, to pull that off.”
Despite The Nice Guys sitting at 91% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes with more than 300 reviews, it only took in $62.8 million worldwide. Even though this number surpassed its reported $50-million production budget, it was still a paltry sum for a project starring Gosling and Crowe.
In its opening weekend, The Nice Guys was defeated by Captain America: Civil War (in its third week of release), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, and The Angry Birds Movie. Earlier this year, Gosling joked that it was entirely the fault of The Angry Birds Movie that we haven’t gotten a sequel.
“So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against Angry Birds,” Gosling joked with ComicBook about a sequel. “So Angry Birds just, just destroyed us. Angry Birds got a sequel.”
Stay tuned for possible updates on the future of The Nice Guys.
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