It is oddly appropriate that Denzel Washington’s first sequel be something as generic and run-of-the-mill as The Equalizer 2.

On the plus side, Sony didn’t spend much more on this sequel ($62 million) than they did on the first one ($55m), so it’s a lot cheaper than its competition and will be the only big R-rated actioner until Mile 22 in early August. Of course, its chief competition may be Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which… doesn’t quite star Meryl Streep. This time out, Washington will face The Rock’s Skyscraper (Universal/Comcast Corp.), Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible Fallout (Paramount/Viacom Inc.), Mark Wahlberg’s Mile 22 (STX Entertainment) and Jason Statham’s The Meg (Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc.). The presumption is that this sequel will play smaller than the first film in North America (say it with me now: fewer folks go to the movies than they did in late 2014), but may hopefully make up for it overseas.Ĭompetition may be an issue, although the first Equalizer mopped the floor with Liam Neeson’s (underrated but very bleak) A Walk Among the Tombstones. It was, unadjusted for inflation, Washington’s second-biggest solo outing in North America (behind Remember the Titans in 2000) and his biggest global grosser sans a high-profile co-star. The Equalizer opened with $35 million in September 2014 before legging it to $100m domestic and $193m worldwide on a $50m budget.

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