Gerard Butler’s $90 Million Action Sequel Gets Overwhelmed by ‘Avatar 3’ in Soft Box Office Debut

1 day ago 5

John Garrity looking surprised on a boat

Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).

Star Gerard Butler has had a hit-or-miss run at the box office in the last half-decade. Although he hasn't delivered the kind of hits that he used to, his movies tend to do really well on home video, especially if they get a theatrical release as well. This is what happened with the first Greenland film in 2020; it did barely any business at the box office, but enough to raise awareness in time for its PVOD run. Greenland emerged as a major hit on the transactional marketplace, which prompted the stakeholders to green-light Greenland 2: Migration. The action sequel debuted this week to mixed reviews and underwhelming box office results, but will hope that some of its predecessor's energy rubs off on it later on.

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh, who previously collaborated with Butler on the first Greenland, Kandahar, and Angel Has Fallen, the new film made around $8.5 million in its domestic box office debut. This happened to be lower than its already conservative $10 million projection, and was only enough for a fifth-place finish on the domestic charts, with Avatar: Fire and Ash holding onto its crown for the fourth weekend in a row. Greenland 2 cost a reported $90 million to produce, which is higher than what Angel Has Fallen cost. Besides the recent How to Train Your Dragon live-action remake, this is Butler's most expensive movie since Geostorm, which was released in 2017. Last year, Butler headlined Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, which made around $60 million worldwide, and, as expected, did phenomenally well on home video.

'Greenland 2' Has Earned Inferior Reviews to Its Predecessor

Greenland 2 brings back Morena Baccarin from the first film, with Jojo Rabbit star Roman Griffin Davis joining the cast as the son of Butler and Baccarin's characters. In the movie, the family undertakes a perilous journey against the backdrop of a cataclysmic global event. Greenland 2 is currently sitting at a 57% critics' score and a 66% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "The world ends more with a whimper in Greenland 2: Migration compared to its predecessor's big bang thrills, but Gerard Butler's sturdy star power keeps this continuation reasonably compelling." By comparison, the first Greenland is still sitting at a "certified fresh" 77% score on RT. Waugh has another release lined up this month, the Jason Statham vehicle Shelter. You can watch Greenland 2 in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.