This past weekend, the John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds IF movie opened, but it is underperforming at the box office.
Likewise, the critics don’t like what they see at all as the Rotten Tomatoes score is low and considered “rotten.”
Per the official description, IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.
As many of the trailer comments have pointed out on YouTube, IF sounds a lot like previous shows and movies dealing with imaginary friends including Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends where the similarities don’t end there as they both feature characters named Blue/Bloo (Krasinski and Reynolds had to know this).
Box office estimates were as high as $40 million
Regarding the box office, estimates were as high as a $40 million opening, but IF only brought in $33.7 million, according to Amazon’s Box Office Mojo, but the trades are stretching the number to $34 million.
It has been reported IF has a budget of around $110 million, so the flick will need some real world legs to do anything.
It sorta reminds me of Ryan Gosling’s The Fall Guy which also underperformed recently, and after being open for less than three weeks, will already be made available digitally on Tuesday (wow!).
“Rotten” score from critics
At Rotten Tomatoes, IF has a 47% “rotten” score from the critics. Per the norm, fans like it better, with the Audience Score presently at 87%. If also has an “A” CinemaScore which is very good, so if word does get out, maybe the flick will have some legs.
Worth a mention is that this holiday weekend sees the Chris Pratt Garfield movie get released ($35 million+ opening estimate) along with Furiosa ($40 to $50 million), so there is lots of competition.
