Despite January and February being used as dumping grounds for movie releases, Apple is counting big on Matthew Vaughn’s “Argylle,” which, starting today, is in theaters.
Earlier in the week, Vaughn’s 139-minute adaptation of Elly Conway’s novel got off to a rocky start with critics — it currently holds a 34% rotten score. Last night the film made just $1.7 million in Thursday previews, which means it’s headed for a rough opening weekend.
The film is packed with stars — Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa — and will probably finish at #1 this weekend, but that’s not saying much considering the weak competition.
You also have Vaughn hinting at sequels. In July 2021, it was announced that Argylle was intended to serve as a trilogy of films. In March 2022, it was confirmed that the first film will be followed by two sequels to complete a film trilogy. Is Apple now thinking twice about this?
Rockwell and Cavill are saying they haven’t yet signed up for the follow-ups. Ditto Vaughn who says it’ll depend on whether the film is successful at the box-office. The current projections have “Argylle” opening at around $16-18 million this weekend.
Whether a sequel happens or not, this won’t be the last that we hear from Vaughn as he’s currently in the middle of rebooting “Kick-Ass,” helming another ‘Kingsman,’ directing a Damien Chazelle penned musical, and also just completed production on a mysterious new action film.
Vaughn is also hinting at a superspy cinematic universe that would link all of his spy films together:
I’ve done the ‘Kingman’ [films] and got more ‘Kingsman’ hopefully. We’ve got the whole of ‘Argylle.’ There are two other spy things I’m looking at. So, you’re going like, ‘Marvel and DC created these universes out of superheroes, why can’t we do that with spies?’ That’s sorta the plan.
Somebody, please, stop this guy.