Speaking of humor-focused ads, like so many Hollywood movies released from 2016 onward, the marketing of “The Fall Guy” made it seem like it was trying to be the new “Deadpool.” From the forceful attempted meme-making to the constant self-deprecation to the gleefully violent machismo to the absence of any emotional or conceptual center, the message being sent to the public clearly was, “It’s got jokes and punches! You like that, right?”
To be clear, the movie itself isn’t like that at all. But the marketing team’s effort to court the same audience that made “Deadpool” a history-making box office hit speaks to a broader industry issue, which is the fact that too many darn movies are trying to be the new “Deadpool” — yet none so far have even come close to pulling it off.
Since 2016, we’ve had “The Gentlemen,” “Tag,” “Logan Lucky,” “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” “Men In Black: International,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Bullet Train,” “Argylle,” “Violent Night,” “6 Underground,” “Red Notice,” and “Ghosted,” just to name a few. Some moderate hits, many flops and underperformers, a few straight-to-streaming also-rans — and not a single “Deadpool”-level phenomenon. The assumption that action plus jokes equals profit hasn’t always been borne out by the post-“Deadpool” reality, and there’s a non-negligible possibility that whatever market there was for this particular blend of genres has simply gotten too crowded.
