Ryan Gosling, who returns to the big screen in the crime drama Gangster Squad, is seen as one of Hollywood's hottest actors — but is his buzz bigger than his box office?
According to boxofficemojo.com, Gosling's movies have earned a combined $336 million in the U.S. and Canada, or an average of $24 million per film. That's low compared to other Canadian actors like Ryan Reynolds ($42 million), Rachel McAdams ($83 million) and Seth Rogen ($85 million) and a long way from the average takes of stars like Tom Cruise ($97 million), Brad Pitt ($67 million) and Will Smith ($135 million).
Movies marketed with Gosling's face alone have generally not done well. The four in which he received top-billing — and appeared solo on the posters — have taken in less than $50 million combined.
Drive earned $35 million and The Believer, Half Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl made only $14.4 million combined.
When Gosling is portrayed as the romantic male lead, the results are slightly better. The three movies in which he appeared on posters with a female co-star have earned a total of $91 million at the box office. But this respectable figure is almost entirely thanks to The Notebook ($81 million) because All Good Things ($582,000) and Blue Valentine ($9.7 million) were duds.
When Gosling has been marketed on posters as part of an ensemble cast, the numbers go up slightly. Crazy, Stupid, Love had him sandwiched between Steve Carell and Julianne Moore and earned $82.3 million; The Ides of March, showing half of his face combined with half of co-star George Clooney's face, earned $41 million; and Fracture, showing the actor below Anthony Hopkins, earned $39 million.
But Stay, showing Gosling in the middle of Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts made only $3.6 million and The United States of Leland, where Gosling shared the poster with co-stars like Don Cheadle and Kevin Spacey, took in less than $350,000.
When Gosling was left off the posters completely (Remember the Titans, Murder by Numbers) the total box office haul was an impressive $150 million.
The poster promoting Gangster Squad shows Gosling alongside co-stars Sean Penn and Josh Brolin — as well as Emma Stone, whose box office average is an impressive $88 million.
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