The Equalizer 3, on course to finish the holiday as the second highest Labor Day domestic box office weekend ever, is a fitting snapshot of the disciplined manner in which Denzel Washington built o…
The Equalizer 3, on course to finish the holiday as the second highest Labor Day domestic box office weekend ever, is a fitting snapshot of the disciplined manner in which Denzel Washington built one of the great careers of his generation. The final installment of his first franchise cost a reported $70 million, modest compared to most third franchise installments, and Washington has always been cognizant of the need to make money for investors of his films.
“I feel like I’ve just been chopping wood,” Washington said years back in describing his approach and the slow road to making $20 million a picture. “I found my wheelhouse in films that cost $50 million, which, if they open at $20 million, will give the studios their money back. Nobody has asked me to put on tights for one of those superhero movies, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t have wanted to make $25 million when I was 25 years old, because I surely wouldn’t have walked away from it.
Washington is as methodical as Equalizer’s OCD assassin Robert McCall. Early on, he embraced advice given him by Sidney Poitier, who said, “If they see you for free all week, they won’t pay to see you on the weekend.” Washington took it to heart: “To have longevity as an actor in movies you have to have some mystery. I’m not interested in all that. I’ll do an interview because I’m selling a movie. I’m not selling me.” So no future as a social media influencer for him.
Along the way, Washington won the Academy Award twice, a Tony Award and three Golden Globes, and branched out into directing as well as producing. In the latter role, he was entrusted by the estate of Fences playwright August Wilson to bring his works to life as films and TV productions. One of those was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the final work of Chadwick Boseman before he died from colon cancer at 43 while the film was in post-production.
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