The Killer's Game was released in the United States by Lionsgate on September 13, 2024. It received negative reviews and was a box-office bomb.[4][5]
Plot
At a dance performance in Budapest, hitman Joe Flood carries out an assassination, but is spotted by guards. In the ensuing chaos, Joe spots a fallen dancer, Maize, and helps get her out safely. She tries to thank him, but Joe starts to suffer a headache and leaves before Maize can help him.
After an examination for his headaches, Joe finds Maize at her dance studio and returns her phone, which she lost during the previous mayhem. Maize and Joe soon fall for each other, with him lying about his profession to her. Joe is soon diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, with his physician, Dr. Kagan, giving him roughly three months to live.
Joe tries to get his friend and handler Zvi to put a contract on him, which would allow Maize to collect life insurance off of Joe’s death, but Zvi refuses. Joe turns to Marianna Antoinette, another assassin and handler, to handle the contract. Marianna, whose father mentored Joe before he killed him, accepts the contract, and soon sends the hit out, which takes effect at midnight. That night, Joe publicly breaks up with Maize, and later explains his diagnosis in a drunken voice message.
Just before midnight, Dr. Kagan calls Joe to inform him that he was misdiagnosed, as his test results were switched with another patient. At midnight, Joe is attacked by the first of Marianna’s assassins, the Korean Goyang and his gang, whom he quickly kills. The Hungarian Langos brothers, who attack together with their motorcycles, follow, and Joe kills them too. Joe tries to cancel the contract, but Marianna refuses, and contacts every available hitman in Europe as she doubles the contract from the initial $2 million to $4 million. Lovedahl Gasevich, who turned down the initial contract, joins the hunt, along with Scottish brothers Angus and Rory Mackenzie, the British strippers Ginni and Tonya, a.k.a. the Party Girls, and a dancing assassin called Botas.
Joe visits Zvi and his wife, Sharon, the latter of whom fixes his headaches and bad vision. Joe sets up traps at a nearby castle to lure the other assassins there. Most of the assassins arrive to attack Joe, but he quickly takes them out. Meanwhile, Lovedahl arrives in Budapest, where he is forced to partner with an aspiring assassin, Money. The two of them track down Maize to her apartment and take her captive. Lovedahl calls Joe through Maize's phone and tells them to meet at a nearby cemetery.
When Joe arrives to confront Lovedahl, Maize escapes, steals Lovedahl's car and rams into him before she takes Joe with her. A hit squad, led by Marianna's right hand man Max, shows up and fires on Joe. A furious Lovedahl has Max call Marianna and demands that she increase the contract to $6 million before he leaves Money behind. Meanwhile, Joe tells Maize that he is an assassin, and of his misdiagnosis, but that he is willing to retire to be with her. She then tells Joe that she is pregnant and would not want to raise a child with a murderer. Maize starts to pass out because one of Max's bullets hit her in the shoulder.
Joe brings Maize to a church, where the Priest, Father O'Brien gives them sanctuary as Joe tends to Maize. Joe proposes to Maize shortly after she wakes up, and O'Brien reluctantly agrees to marry them. The ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of Max and his men, who injure the priest shortly before Lovedahl shows up. Joe kills most of Max's squad before he pins Lovedahl under some scaffolding. Max tries to kill Joe, but Maize kills him first with a headshot, to her horror. Joe takes Maize out of the church and leaves an injured but alive Lovedahl there. Meanwhile, Zvi confronts Marianna at her compound and executes her for breaking the assassins' code. Joe and Maize later get married, and while he promises to retire from the assassin life, Maize tells him to consider the costs of raising a child, and suggests he not give it up entirely.
Principal photography began in July 2023 in Budapest,[23] with the film having been granted an interim agreement waiver to proceed amid the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.[24]
Final writing credits were submitted in November 2023; screenplay credit was given to Ravich and Coyne and the offscreen additional literary material credit was attributed to Caruso, Nick Cassavetes, John Joseph Connolly, Michael Dowse, Cory Goodman, Kinberg, Landesman, Brian Rudnick, and Kurt Wimmer.[25]
Release
The Killer's Game was released in the United States and Canada on September 13, 2024.[26] It released on VOD and digital platforms on October 4, 2024.[27][28][29]
Reception
Box office
As of October 17, 2024[update], The Killer's Game has grossed $5.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $523,260 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $5.9 million.[2][3]
In the United States and Canada, The Killer's Game was released alongside Speak No Evil and Am I Racist?, and was projected to gross around $5 million from 2,623 theaters in its opening weekend.[30] The film made $1.06 million on its first day, including $300,000 from Thursday night previews.[31] It took in $2.6 million, finishing seventh for the weekend.[1]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of 45 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "While it can be commended for refreshingly casting the reliable Dave Bautista in a romantic role, this otherwise tepid hitman comedy doesn't make many inventive moves on the board."[32]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 37 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[33] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 63% overall positive score, with 45% saying they would definitely recommend it.[1]
