In 2014, Denzel Washington re-teamed with Antoine Fuqua for the first time since the Oscar-winning crime drama, Training Day. This time around, the two heavyweights revived the popular TV series The Equalizer for the big screen. The original series was a smash hit in the 80s and followed a retired Intelligence Agent who dished out justice to those targeting the weak and vulnerable.
The Equalizer movie stayed true to the premise of the show and kept the lead character’s name of Robert McCall. However, it stepped up the ante in the violence department. To that, The Equalizer became an action classic and spawned two sequels. So, with The Equalizer 3 now settled into its cinema release, let’s dive into the box office figures.
How The Equalizer 3 Shifts the Tone of the Franchise
In the first Equalizer movie, the audience is slowly introduced to one of the most lethal killers in cinema history. As he attempts to live a quiet life, we get the feeling there is more to this man than meets the eye. Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) spends his days working at a home appliance store. At night, he struggles to sleep so takes himself to a diner where he reads a book and drinks tea. It is in this diner where he befriends a young girl who he later discovers is at the mercy of a ruthless criminal empire. Soon enough, Robert steps in to protect the girl and a vicious battle is ignited. To that, we get to see what this man is truly capable of as he takes out ample thugs single-handedly. We then discover that Robert is in fact a former CIA agent who faked his own death a few years prior.
In the second movie, Robert once again finds himself dishing out unflinching justice to wrongdoers. Both of the first two movies operate on a slow-burn premise leading towards a chaotic finale. They are filled with epic fight scenes and deadly, innovative kills. However, The Equalizer 3 made a much-needed shift tonally. This time around, the movie opened with violence and mayhem. When Robert becomes injured, he takes shelter in a small town in Italy to recover. Here, he soon befriends the locals. However, it isn’t long before he is pulled back into more carnage. Although The Equalizer 3 is spliced with intense fight scenes and brutal kills, it is much more of a drama and a character driven piece. Some critics picked up on this lack of action and the film opened to mixed reviews. So, how did this affect the movies box office takings?
Comparing The Box Office Figures of The Equalizer 3 to the Other Entries
With a production budget estimated to be between $55-73 million, The Equalizer made an impressive box office return of $192.3 million worldwide. As a result of such success, The Equalizer 2 was quickly greenlit. The second installment grossed a worldwide total of $190.4 million, against a production budget of $62 million. After a 5-year hiatus, the franchise still appears to be in demand with moviegoers. As of the time of this writing, The Equalizer 3 has grossed a worldwide total of $177 million against a budget of $70 million. Furthermore, The Equalizer 3 currently has the highest metascore out of all three films, with IGN scoring the movie 80/100. Apart from some outliers complaining about the lack of action, this strong critical appeal has surely helped the film’s performance, as it continued to climb three weeks after its release.
Will There Be Another Equalizer Movie?
A common theme across the Equalizer movies is Robert’s inner battle with himself to leave his old self behind. It is revealed early on that he made a promise to his late wife to not be that person anymore. However, killing is what he is best at, and wherever he goes in the world, evil lurks. However, in The Equalizer 3, Robert makes his biggest effort yet to refrain from violence. Although he does dish out some brutal justdeserves in the movie, by the end of the picture it appears he has finally found peace and solitude.
On top of this, The Equalizer 3‘s trailer was promoted as the final chapter. Couple this with Denzel Washington’s strong dislike for sequels, it’s fair to assume the series has already stretched further than anyone initially thought that it would. However, the series could still live on in other means. There has already been a revamped series starring Queen Latifah and Antoine Fuqua hasn’t completely ruled out returning to the franchise altogether. In fact, when speaking with EW, Fuqua said, “Listen, Denzel’s in shape. He’s training every day. If you saw him now, it would blow your mind. He’s like 60 pounds lighter, even from The Equalizer. He’s really healthy. Yeah, it’s up to him. Obviously, if he wanted to do another one, I would as well, but I don’t see it.”
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