Red One | |
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Directed by | Jake Kasdan |
Screenplay by | Chris Morgan |
Story by | Hiram Garcia |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Dan Mindel |
Edited by |
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Music by | Henry Jackman |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 123 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $200–250 million [2] [3] [4] |
Box office | $176.6 million [5] [6] |
Red One is a 2024 American Christmas action film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris Morgan, from an original story by Hiram Garcia. It stars Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J. K. Simmons, Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, and Wesley Kimmel. In the film, Callum Drift (Johnson), the head of North Pole security, teams up with the hacker Jack O'Malley (Evans) to locate a kidnapped Santa Claus (Simmons) on Christmas Eve.
Produced by Amazon MGM Studios, Seven Bucks Productions, Chris Morgan Productions, and The Detective Agency, [7] [8] Red One is seen as the first of a Christmas-themed action film franchise. Principal photography for the film began in October 2022 and concluded in February 2023, with filming locations including Atlanta.
Red One was first released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures internationally on November 6, 2024, and in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 15. [9] The film has grossed $176.6 million worldwide on a budget of $200–$250 million, and has received mostly negative reviews from critics.
M.O.R.A (Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority) is a clandestine, multilateral military organization that oversees and protects a secret peace treaty between mythological creatures and humanity. Callum Drift, commander of ELF (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification), head of Santa Claus's security detail, requests to retire after one last Christmas run, as he has become disillusioned with increased naughty behavior in the world, exemplified by the growth of Santa's Naughty List. On Christmas Eve, a black ops team breaks into the North Pole complex and kidnaps Santa. Callum notifies Director Zoe Harlow about the kidnapping, and her team discovers that the North Pole's secret location was compromised by Jack O'Malley, a mercenary black-hat hacker who claims to be able to find anything in the world.
Zoe apprehends Jack for questioning. A longtime Santa skeptic, Jack did not know the information he hacked was related to Santa and merely sent it to an anonymous buyer. Zoe offers to double Jack's payment if he helps them find Santa but places a tracker inside him. Callum reluctantly teams up with Jack to find Santa by tracking down Ted, the broker who arranged the deal between Jack and the kidnapper in Aruba. Ted tells them the kidnapper is the winter witch, Grýla. Grýla becomes aware of their conversation and sends her snowmen henchmen to eliminate them; though Callum and Jack defeat them, Ted is frozen in the scuffle.
Callum suspects that Grýla might be working with Krampus, Santa's estranged brother, who is also Grýla's ex-lover and the one who created the Naughty List. Callum and Jack break into Krampus' lair but are captured. Callum appeals to Krampus to help his brother, who misses him, but Krampus refuses. He reveals that Grýla came to him to recover the Glaskäfig, a magical imprisoning snow globe. Despite being allowed to leave, Jack stays and persuades Krampus to play Krampusschlagen with Callum, during which Jack recovers Callum's magic gauntlet and returns it to him, allowing the pair to escape.
Grýla and her sons keep Santa in a vault that siphons his magic, knocking him unconscious. Grýla duplicates the Glaskäfig and intends to rid the world of every naughty child who has ever been on the Naughty List by imprisoning them forever. She tests the snow globes on Jack and his estranged son Dylan. She sends each of them a snow globe that imprisons them and returns to her lair. Jack and Dylan, inside their snow globes next to each other, have a heartfelt conversation that, by making them "nicer", causes the snow globes to break and free them.
Zoe and Callum find Jack at the North Pole complex after using a tracker inside him. They realize that Grýla, her team, and Santa never left the North Pole. They also learn that Grýla's team of shapeshifters has taken over the complex. They go to the North Pole and free the imprisoned Mrs. Claus and other security staff. In Santa's old workshop, they find Jack and Dylan and the toy-duplicating equipment that Grýla used to mass-produce the snow globes.
Because the North Pole equipment relies on Santa's powers, Grýla prepares to leave with an unconscious Santa using his sleigh to distribute the snow globes. A fight ensues, and Grýla is stopped by Callum and Jack, with an assist from Krampus, who arrives to help. Santa recovers, defeats Grýla and seals her inside one of her snow globes. Santa acknowledges his brother while Grýla is taken into Zoe's custody.
Everyone rapidly prepares for the night's Christmas Eve run. Santa invites Jack and Dylan to accompany him, which they accept. During the successful run, Callum watches Jack regain his wonder and build a relationship with Dylan; this convinces him not to retire.
Hiram Garcia at Seven Bucks Productions conceived the idea for the film, [11] which was developed into a screenplay by Chris Morgan for Jake Kasdan to direct. [12] Chris Evans joined the cast in January 2022. [13] In September 2022, Kiernan Shipka was added to the cast. [14] Lucy Liu, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, J. K. Simmons, Nick Kroll, Kristofer Hivju, Wesley Kimmel and Bonnie Hunt joined the cast the following month, with Ellis revealing her and Simmons' involvement on Instagram. [15] [16] [17] [18] Dwayne Johnson was paid $50 million for his involvement. [19]
Filming began in October 2022 in Atlanta and wrapped in February 2023. [16] [20] Filming ran into issues with Johnson, who was an average of seven to eight hours late to film his scenes and missed several days of shooting. These delays reportedly increased the budget by $50 million to a total of $250 million, which Garcia disputed. [4] Johnson later admitted to frequent tardiness as well as urinating in bottles on set, but Evans and Kasdan defended him. [21] [22]
Red One was originally scheduled to be released on Prime Video worldwide in time for Christmas 2023. [23] The release was delayed from December 20, 2023, until November 15, 2024, due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, along with the film getting a worldwide theatrical release. [24] [25] Johnson pushed for Red One to be released in IMAX after watching an IMAX screening of Oppenheimer while Red One's principal photography was still underway. Johnson thought that Red One in the IMAX format would be "game over". [26] Amazon MGM Studios handled the distribution in the United States, while Warner Bros. Pictures handled the film's international release. [27] In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it was released on November 6, 2024. [28] In Latin America, it was released on November 7, 2024. [29] with pre-release advance screenings starting October 31, 2024. [30] Footage of Red One was first shown at CinemaCon in April 2024 to journalists selected by Johnson's publicist, but they were not allowed to write about what they saw. [4] Red One was released on Prime Video on December 12, 2024. [31]
As of December 18,2024 [update] , Red One has grossed $93.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $83 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $176.6 million. [6] [5]
In the United States and Canada, Red One was projected to gross $30–35 million from 4,032 theaters, with some independent sources predicting a debut as low as $25 million or as high as $40 million. [3] [32] The film made $10.9 million on its first day, including $3.7 million from Sunday and Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $32.1 million, topping the box office. [2] Following the film's weak previews performance, Variety concluded that, "With a massive budget of $250 million, plus marketing costs, it'll take a Christmas miracle for Red One to become a profitable hit at the box office." [33] [34] In its second box office weekend, the film dropped 59% to $13.3 million, finishing in third behind newcomers Wicked and Gladiator II . [35] In its third weekend the film made $12.9 million (and a total of $18.7 million over the five day Thanksgiving frame), dropping just 2.5% from the previous weekend and finishing in fourth behind Gladiator ll, Wicked and Moana 2 . [36]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 31% of 163 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "Wrapped in slick packaging but wholly lacking in holiday magic, Red One is a ho-ho-hum action-adventure." However, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score gave the film a 90% approval rating with an average score of 4.4 out of 5 stars." [37] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [38] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 78% overall positive score, with 57% saying they would definitely recommend it. [2]
Peter Bradshaw, writing for The Guardian , gave the film one star out of five, describing it as "profoundly depressing and blandly sentimental" and concluding "this commercial and formulaic slice of content is a toy destined to be forgotten, not by Boxing Day, but mid-November." [39]
Glenn Garner of Deadline Hollywood said the film "blends genres for some family-friendly holiday fun with a generous dose of self-aware absurdity" and wrote: "Yes, it's cheesy, but this movie is best when it leans heavily into the cheese. If that makes your eyes roll, keep in mind this is a Christmas movie ultimately intended for kids who've made it all the way through the MCU on Disney+ twice and their parents now need a reprieve. There are still some jokes aimed at the cold-hearted adult who will inevitably be dragged along on the family cinema outing." [40]
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Krampus is a 2015 Christmas black comedy folk horror film based on the eponymous character from Austro-Bavarian folklore, directed by Michael Dougherty, who co-wrote with Todd Casey and Zach Shields. The film stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania LaVie Owen, with Krista Stadler, and introducing Lolo Owen, Queenie Samuel, Maverick Flack, and Sage Hunefeld. In tells the story of a dysfunctional family squabbling causing a young boy (Max) to lose his festive spirit enough to unleashes the wrath of Krampus, a fearsome, horned demonic beast in ancient European folklore who punishes naughty children at Christmas time.
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