Guy Ritchie dropped two films last year, and one currently sits as Amazon Prime Video’s eighth-biggest hit. The Covenant is a war thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal that struggled at the box office despite rave reviews. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a bland, messy spy movie that audiences forgot in the year it’s been out. Shockingly, Fortune found its footing on the small screen with a temporary bump in viewership. His upcoming Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare provides a chance to look back at his more questionable fare.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre Employs Unconventional Warfare on Amazon
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre struggled with several unexpected snags. STX Entertainment initially booked it to drop in January 2022. It endured a few delays for COVID-19, but the film’s plot presented unique problems. Some of the film’s antagonists were Ukrainian, stepping into choppy political waters that STX wanted to avoid. The studio considered dropping it onto a streaming service in the US after its worldwide theatrical run. It hit theaters in January 2023, but Lionsgate brought it to theaters in the US two months later. STX might have been wise to target streaming, as Guy Ritchie’s fifth collaboration with Jason Statham found its audience on Amazon. Operation Fortune only earned $49 million on a reported $50 million budget. Critics delivered divided opinions, offering a 51% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. It felt like an attempt to launch a franchise, but its poor fortune killed that chance.
Guy Ritchie has a unique filmography. His usual output involves snarky British bloke humor, slapstick violence, and the occasional glimpse of brilliance. He is, however, more complicated than one would expect. You’d never pick him to adapt Sherlock Holmes, but he pulled it off. His Aladdin was less impressive. Fans love his early work, but his Wrath of Man and The Gentlemen demonstrate his consistency. He tries a lot of different things, but Guy Ritchie keeps coming back to his core competency. Operation Fortune feels like Ritchie on autopilot. The film establishes Statham as snarky super-spy Orson Fortune, then gives him a team. He’s got rapper Bugzy Malone and Aubrey Plaza in his corner. You can feel Ritchie and the film’s two co-writers looking for their Mission: Impossible, but not every spy movie gets a franchise.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre will likely never lead to anything. Guy Ritchie could score top ten slots on Amazon every week with his catalog. The film earned its current slot primarily through viewers in Africa. Amazon users in Benin and Burkina Faso pushed it to the top of their national charts. Fortune made the overwhelming majority of its money abroad, raking in $42.5 million of its $49 million in territories outside the US. Clearly, American audiences don’t get this one. Operation Fortune might be a bit formulaic, but some stories just play better elsewhere.
