Magic Mike’s Last Dance is the worst-reviewed entry in the entire series. The trilogy began with the original film Magic Mike in 2012, which followed Channing Tatum as Mike, a Florida stripper who wants to start his own business. Original director Steven Soderbergh handed the reins to Gregory Jacobs for the 2015 sequel Magic Mike XXL, but he has now returned to the director’s seat for this year’s outing, which opened in theaters on Friday. The third installment follows Mike’s trip to London as he works to mount one last show with his new love interest, played by Salma Hayek.
Rotten Tomatoes‘ official score for the opening weekend of Magic Mike’s Last Dance has now settled out at a rotten 46 percent, aggregated from 140 different critical reviews. This places the film as the worst-reviewed of the trilogy, behind Magic Mike XXL at 65 percent and the original Magic Mike at a Certified Fresh score of 78 percent. However, critics seem to differ from audiences, who gave the film a much improved 75 percent, which is actually the series’ highest.
Magic Mike’s Last Dance’s Unlikely Journey to the Screen Explained
It remains to be seen if Magic Mike’s Last Dance will see box office numbers that match the enthusiasm of its Rotten Tomatoes audience score. While it is projected to open at No. 1 this weekend ahead of the surprise success 80 for Brady, it will have a relatively low gross of around $8 million. This is due to it being Super Bowl weekend, so the film may end up taking in a higher gross over Valentine’s Day, which is mid-week this year.
However, the film was never meant to open in theaters at all, and it was hardly meant to exist in the first place. The film franchise had seemingly permanently converted into the form of the still-running Las Vegas stage show, but Soderbergh was inspired by the hard work of the theater cast and crew to bring the character’s story back to the screen.
Even then, Magic Mike’s Last Dance was only ever meant to premiere on the streaming service HBO Max. However, along with the shakeups when parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery, the film was slated for a theatrical release. This is the same treatment that was given to the House Party reboot, which came to theaters this January.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes