Skyscraper (2018 film)

On May 26, 2016, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment had won the bidding war for a Chinese-set action adventure film, Skyscraper, in which Dwayne Johnson was set to play the lead.[5] Rawson Marshall Thurber was attached as the film's scriptwriter, director and producer, with Beau Flynn producing the film through his Flynn Picture Company, alongside Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, with Universal Pictures handling distribution rights.[5]

On June 22, 2017, it was reported that Neve Campbell had signed on to star with Johnson, who plays the head of security for the skyscraper. Maggie Q, Rachel Bilson, Jaimie Alexander and Mira Sorvino were also considered.[6] In July 2017, Chin Han and Pablo Schreiber joined the cast of the film,[7][8] in August 2017, Byron Mann and Hannah Quinlivan also joined, and a few days later, Variety reported that Noah Taylor had also been selected.[9][10] On August 22, 2017, Roland Møller was added to the cast of the film, in one of the main roles.[11]

The architectural rendering of the 225-story tall skyscraper was based on Chinese inspirations. According to the New York Post - "tasked with envisioning the architectural wonder at the center of the Hong Kong-set Skyscraper, production designer Jim Bissell and his team researched local myths for inspiration and came upon a Chinese fable they could work with."[12]

Principal photography on the film began on August 14, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia.[13][14][15][16] Additional photography and exteriors were filmed at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.[17][18]

Steve Jablonsky composed the film's score which uses elements of guitars, synthesised drums and traditional orchestra. The soundtrack was digitally released on July 13, 2018 by Milan Records with the physical soundtrack being released later on August 3, 2018.[19] British singer and songwriter Jamie N Commons performed the song Walls which plays in the end credits of the film.[20]

The visual effects were provided by Moving Picture Company, Method Studios, Image Engine and Industrial Light & Magic; the visuals were supervised by Craig Hammack, Jose Burgos, Bernhard Kimbacher and Jason Billington.[21]

Skyscraper was released digitally on September 25, 2018, and released on Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D and 4K Blu-ray on October 9, 2018.[28]

Skyscraper grossed $68.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $236.4 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $304.9 million, against a production budget of $125 million.[2]

In the United States and Canada, Skyscraper was released alongside the opening of Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, as well as the wide expansion of Sorry to Bother You, and was initially projected to gross $32–40 million from 3,782 theaters in its opening weekend.[29] However, after making $1.95 million during Thursday night screenings (down from the $2.4 million made by Johnson's Rampage the past April) and $9.3 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $24 million. The film ended up debuting to $24.9 million, finishing third, behind Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Deadline Hollywood attributed the low figure to audiences having seen the plot before in other films and the July release date being in the height of the crowded summer movie season, as well as the possibility that filmgoers had become tired of seeing Johnson so frequently (although the site noted that 72% of people who bought tickets to Skyscraper did so because of him).[30] In its second weekend the film made $11.4 million and finished sixth, and in its third made $5.4 million, finishing ninth.[31][32]

The film debuted to $47.7 million in China, finishing first at the country's box office and bringing the two-week global foreign total to $132.8 million.[33] In its third weekend of international release the film added another $17.8 million, including $7 million in China (for a running-cume of $86 million).[34]

Skyscraper concluded 2018 as the 31st highest-grossing film of the year worldwide.[35]

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 47% based on 260 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Well-cast yet derivative, Skyscraper isn't exactly a towering action thriller feat, but it's solidly constructed enough to stand among the genre's more mildly diverting features."[36] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[30]

Alonso Duralde of TheWrap called the film a "satisfying summer thriller," while acknowledging the familiar plot, and writing, "Skyscraper doesn't change the action-movie game the way Die Hard did, but it's a solidly entertaining summer diversion best enjoyed on the biggest theater — or even better, drive-in — screen you can find."[38] Variety's Peter Debruge was more critical of the story but praised Johnson, saying, "This is escapism, pure and simple, and though the structure is rickety, by enlisting Johnson, Thurber ensures that his Skyscraper is built on solid Rock."[39]

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty found the film to be a weak remake of Die Hard, giving it a "C-" rating and stating: "It's all passively watchable, but the main problem is that writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence) hasn't come up with a villain nearly as memorable as Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber. I know that comparison may seem unfair, but when you're ripping off Die Hard this shamelessly, it's kind of not."[40]