And here's a movie that will probably make about $37.91 in North America and may still break big in Europe. That's the sole reason that this third Johnny English movie exists. The first Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling British spy, earned $28 million domestic in 2003 but snagged $135m overseas for a $160m worldwide total on a $45m budget. Eight years later, we got Johnny English Returns, which co-starred Rosamund Pike and Gillian Anderson (right after X-Files ended back when Anderson wasn't quite as prolific as she is today). The 2011 Universal release earned $8.3m domestic and $151m overseas for a $160m global cume, with 94% of that coming overseas, which (to the best of my knowledge) is a record for an English-language picture.
Can Johnny English Strikes Again, due Oct. 12 in North America and the UK, pull off an even larger split? For the record, Bean (which contains a gag involving an immersive theme park ride that made me laugh so hard that I couldn't breathe) earned $251m worldwide back in 1997 while Mr. Bean's Holiday earned $229m in 2007. Offhand, it seems that Atkinson seems to alternate between these two franchises like 1980's Sly Stallone doing Rambo and Rocky movies in between each other.
Amusingly enough, since the Johnny English movies only drop every seven or eight years, they have kind of become the Before Sunrise of English spy comedy franchises. This time out, the retired agent-turned-teacher is called back into service when the names of the other undercover operatives are leaked, something that seems to happen all the bloody time in these spy movies. And it seems like utter chaos at the spy office is the only way that otherwise untested/undervalued would-be spies can get thrust out into the field, even if it usually ends up going pretty well.
Emma Thompson is the "prestige" actor this time around (John Malkovich co-starred in the first flick), while Olga Kurylenko is apparently trying to be the female lead with as many onscreen spies as possible. She co-starred with Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace in 2008 and Peirce Brosnan in The November Man in 2014. She co-starred with Tom Cruise in Oblivion five years ago, but he wasn't playing Ethan Hunt so it doesn't quite count. Anyway, this trailer has a few strong chuckles, and I like the idea of an unassuming franchise such as this living to fight another day, even if it's essentially a sacrificial lamb in terms of domestic box office potential.
Johnny English Strikes Back opens Oct. 12 courtesy of Focus Features and Universal/Comcast Corp. I'm sure it'll at least be better than Spectre.
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