Ryan Reynolds: New Movie 'The Change-Up' Flops
Universal Pictures’ “The Change-Up” starring Ryan Reynolds earned a mere $13.5 million in opening box office sales this weekend. The R-rated comedy performed much lower than expected in the box office, and was outdone by “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which raked in $54 million this weekend.
The summer comedy stars Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman as best friends who undergo a body-switch after wishing they had one another’s lives. Reynolds plays a womanizing bachelor while Bateman plays a happily married father, and when they wake to find they have traded places, humorous antics ensue. “The Change-Up” co-stars Olivia Wilde and Leslie Mann.
The raunchy humor has met critic’s scorn, but audiences gave it an average grade of B, according to the LA Times. Over half of viewers were under 30 years old and 59 percent were female. Fandango reports that the average critic score was 40 out of 100, and one viewer wrote, “There was an extreme amount of ‘potty humor’ and a lot of nudity… I would not recommend this movie to anyone.”
Rotten Tomatoes rated “Change-Up” 4.4 out of 10 points, and says “There’s a certain amount of fun to be had from watching Bateman and Reynolds play against type, but it isn’t enough to carry The Change-Up through its crude humor and formulaic plot.”
It has been a tough summer for Canadian actor Reynolds, whose recent film “The Green Lantern” grossed only $154.6 million and cost about $200 million to produce. Reynolds is also freshly single, having dissolved his marriage to actress Scarlett Johansson on July 1.
It has been a big season for comedy films, as “Bad Teacher,” “Horrible Bosses,” and “Bridesmaids,” have been very successful; each opening with $10 million more than “Change-up.”
“The Smurfs” followed “Planet of the Apes” for second highest-earning movie this weekend, collecting $76.2 million domestically. “Cowboys and Aliens” came in third in box office sales on its second weekend out, earning $67.4 million.
