Was the movie dog a success?
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"You can kill almost anyone else." Show Rest easy, dog lovers: The canine at the center of the movie Dog does not die. In fact, when co-director and star Channing Tatum set out to make the film with longtime friend and Magic Mike collaborator Reid Carolin, they ruled out doggy deaths from the jump. "We love dogs over here," Tatum tells EW. "It's one of those things, no one really wants one of those movies. I think that's one of those deadly sins... kill the one thing that everyone loves in a movie. Just don't kill the dog — you can kill almost anyone else." The buddy comedy follows the wild adventure of Army Ranger Briggs (Tatum), who is tasked with taking the legendarily difficult pooch Lulu on a road trip so she can attend the funeral of her handler (and fellow soldier). Lulu — played in the film by three Belgian Malinois dogs named Lana, Britta, and Zuza — shares a name with and is loosely inspired by the relationship between Tatum and his late, beloved pitbull-Catahoula mix who passed away in 2018. "[It's] the themes and the feeling — it's more the bond and the relationship that Lulu and I had. I had her from the time that she was six weeks old. She was like my child, my shadow — she was everything. And this is a very, very, very different story," Tatum explains. Although the plot doesn't mirror his real-life experience, and Lulu's onscreen persona is different from his own dog's, there's one scene in particular that sweetly reminded the star of his furry best friend. The moment involves Briggs and Lulu taking a pit stop on the side of the road. After relieving themselves, Lulu runs off. When she returns, she has bird feathers in her mouth. "My Lulu was a hunting dog and I don't hunt, so she never got to really exercise that part of her DNA like she was probably born to do. So anything that wasn't a dog or like five times bigger than her, she'd want to take it down [like in the film]," he says. Channing Tatum Channing Tatum in 'Dog' | Credit: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/MGM Naturally, when your costar is a living, breathing animal, things are bound to go awry — like the time Tatum's character was supposed to wrestle a toy away from the dog, and part of the toy fell out mid-take and hit him so hard that he ended up with seven stitches in his face. Even still, Tatum jokes that any real errors came from him and not the pups. "I don't think a dog can really mess up a take, personally. Because a dog is just being purely a dog, so it can't physically mess up the take. We are asking it to be a dog, that's about it. And we're trying to craft the world around the thing so it can just honestly be itself." He adds, "So I'm sure I messed up almost everything." Between co-directing with Carolin, starring, and working with the canines in just about every scene in the film, Tatum did not make his first time as a helmer easy or straightforward — which is probably why he feels he doesn't really deserve credit for it. "Just to be really frank about it, I don't really feel like I directed it," he admits with a laugh. "I really think that like I directed the dog and Reid directed me. I don't know if I've directed my first movie really." His modesty aside, the film presented all kinds of logistical challenges for the first-time directors, from time and money constraints to the aforementioned problems with wrangling dogs for an entire movie. "We thought we were making a really good decision," Tatum says of the film. "We were just like, 'Oh, it will be a really small little movie, really contained — me, a dog, in a car, on a road trip — small, little, attainable movie.' And then cut to it's one of the hardest possible movies to go and try to make." He continues, "It started off with a really clear intention that we loved this idea of surrender and we tried to capture it in this very small story." And, at the end of the day, the star says he doesn't know if it was a "smart decision," but ultimately, "I'm proud of the movie that we made." In addition to Tatum, Dog — which is now in theaters — also stars Jane Adams, Kevin Nash, Q'orianka Kilcher, Ethan Suplee, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Nicole LaLiberté, Luke Forbes, and Ronnie Gene Blevins. Carolin wrote the screenplay with a story by him and Brett Rodriguez. For more with Tatum, check out the full video above. Related content:
It’s brutal out there for original stories. The biggest box office hits of late are superhero reboots and sequels – think “The Batman” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Original fare, even films directed by Hollywood heavy hitters, are struggling to draw a crowd. Three stark examples?
So Channing Tatum’s big-screen comeback, an original yarn with a tepid title, seemed like another box office dog. Instead, “DOG” is a hit, devouring the scraps left behind by Batman and that wall-crawler. DOG | Official Trailer | MGM Studios The film’s current box office haul? A tidy $54 million, and growing. This weekend, the movie fell just 21 percent from the previous week despite losing 100 screens nationwide and becoming available for VOD viewing. The film opened with a strong but not overwhelming $15 million, but word of mouth subsequently kicked in. That, plus a very modest $15 million budget, means this “DOG” proved a wise investment. Why? It’s not too complicated. Tatum remains a charming, apolitical movie star who we don’t see in every third film. In fact, before “DOG” and this month’s “The Lost City,” his last major role came in “Logan Lucky” five years ago. Absence makes the cinephile’s heart grow fonder. DOG (2022) | Behind The Scenes of Channing Tatum Movie Tatum aggressively stays above our tribal times, witness this telling quote from the Left-leaning AP: “I would not call myself a liberal. I would not call myself a Republican or a Democrat. I’m not political … I do believe that the stereotypes and the generalizations can get us in trouble.” The film itself is a shaggy dog of a yarn, veering from “Turner & Hooch”-style yuks to dramatic moments tied to the main character’s PTSD. That dual storytelling shouldn’t work, on paper, but Tatum (the film’s co-director) ties it all together. There’s more here, though. “DOG” is resolutely pro-U.S. troops. The film isn’t about combat or winning wars, but it showcases soldiers in a deeply empathetic light. They fight, see their fellow soldiers die on the battlefield and, later, return home to live as if nothing ever happened. That’s impossible. “DOG” is part of a new wave of soldier-friendly films, think the outstanding “Thank You for Your Service,” which respect the sacrifices men and women make for the country. That brand of pro-troop sentiment resonates with the heartland, witness previous hits like “American Sniper” and “Lone Survivor.” “DOG” also pokes a little fun at the woke crowd, a rarity on screen. One segment finds Tatum’s character bickering playfully with some very woke Portland women. The joke, at least here, is on them. Another features a pro-animal activist who resorts to violence rather quickly. Chances are that character doesn’t have a MAGA hat in his closet. And, of course, Tatum’s co-star deserves some credit. Americans love their mutts, and this critter, a damaged but recovering Belgian Malinois named Lulu, is a chronic scene stealer. Audiences will still line up for films that don’t spawn from a comic book, toy franchise or beloved brand. It just takes some hustle, and a keen awareness of what viewers want, to make it happen. How much money did the movie Dog make?85 million USDDog / Box officenull
Did the movie Dog get good reviews?“Dog” is uneven in tone and quality but shows promise in the way Tatum and Carolin approach the story with care and heart. It leaves us optimistic for the future ahead for the wounded warriors and for the people who told their story. Now playing in theaters.
How much did Dog cost to make?15 million USDDog / Budgetnull
How many dogs were used in the movie Dog?There are actually three different dogs who played Lulu. Their names are Britta, Lana 5, and Zuza, and though they look similar to German Shepherds, they're actually Belgian Malinois, a breed well suited to police or military work.
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