STX Entertainment dropped new images, a poster and a trailer yesterday for Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre. The original action comedy stars Jason Statham as a MI6 agent who has to blackmail a movie star (Josh Hartnett) to prevent an arms dealer (Hugh Grant) from precuring a “very bad thing.” Oh, and Audrey Plaza co-stars as a CIA agent. I’d absolutely argue the popular comic actress partaking in a conventional “running and gunning while looking hot” action role qualifies as an added value element. Oh, and Cary Elwes is there too, which is a bonus. First, this has all the makings of a non-franchise movie that audiences might actually see in theaters.
Second, if I’m right and moviegoers do show up on January 22, then it’ll continue a rather impressive hot streak for its top-billed star. In the pre-Covid times, I argued that even non-franchise films aimed at grown-up (or not just kid) audiences still had a chance in hell in theaters provided they had five essential ingredients. They needed an all-star ensemble cast, a marquee director, an easy elevator pitch, decent reviews and the promise of cinematic escapism and/or a good time at the movies. Obvious examples include Baby Driver ($237 million), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ($304 million) and Knives Out ($375 million).
The performances of The Gentlemen ($115 million on a $35 million budget in early 2020) and Wrath of Man ($104 million in summer 2021) offer more cause for optimism. Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies co-wrote those films alongside Ritchie, and they’ll be back for Operation Fortune. Wrath of Man was a new-to-you R-rated remake of a foreign actioner which (despite being a Jason Statham film with no other elements save for being a Statham flick) became the action star’s third-biggest solo action flick ever, behind only his previous R-rated solo actioner Mechanic: Resurrection ($126 million in 2016) and Transporter 3 ($108 million in 2008). Statham has been on a roll since Furious 7 in early 2015.
Yes, obviously Jason Statham as the villainous Deckard Shaw was an added value element in James Wan’s $1.515 billion-grossing Furious 7 and F. Gary Gray’s $1.236 billion-grossing Fate of the Furious in 2017. He was also a scene-stealing added-value element in Paul Feig’s modern classic Spy ($235 million in 2015). However, he was the unmitigated lead alongside Lin Bingbing in Jon Turtleltaub’s crowd-pleasing The Meg, which earned a stunning $145 million domestic, $155 million in China and $530 million worldwide in summer 2019. Likewise, branded IP or now, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (alongside Dwayne Johnson) earned $173 million domestic, $203 million in China and $759 million (more than F9) in summer 2019.
Meanwhile, the two R-rated solo actioners in between those films hit high water marks for Statham as an action lead. Statham’s global has indeed risen as a result of appearing as a supporting character in the A-level Fast Saga flick. His appearances in the Melissa McCarthy spy flick and the $150 million, family-friendly shark adventure has earned attention and fans from folks otherwise not automatically expected to have their own personal rankings of the Transporter movies (2 > 1 > Refueled > 3). Does this mean that Operation Fortune is going to be a breakout super-smash? No, but Statham’s higher-profile work since 2015 has at least made him into a dependable Gerard Butler-level action star.
Operation Fortune looks like quirky fun and less grimdark than the relentlessly violent Wrath of Man (which intriguingly felt closer to a horror movie than an action flick) and less niche than The Gentlemen. It seems to check off all the boxes required, at least in pre-Covid times, for a halfway-decent theatrical success even sans IP, brand or marquee characters. It could be the latest in a surprisingly solid streak for one of our last old-school action stars. As much as I always talked about Statham missing his proverbial Under Siege/Total Recall, he merely joined up with other stars’ A-level franchises and in-turn succeeded in goosing his own B-level flicks.
