Production notes

In August 2016, Matt Lieberman spent three weeks writing the first draft of the spec script for Free Guy. This was sold and entered development at 20th Century Fox prior to being acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Free Guy is one of the first Fox films to continue production under Disney's ownership, as well as under the studio's new name of 20th Century Studios. Director Shawn Levy originally passed on the script. After he was introduced to Ryan Reynolds by a mutual friend Hugh Jackman (whom Levy directed in Real Steel and Reynolds costarred with in X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Levy and Reynolds decided to work on Free Guy after rereading it together. Reynolds, who also produced the film, said, "I haven't been this fully immersed and engaged in something since Deadpool." Levy had previously been attached to the film Uncharted, an adaptation of the video game series of the same name, before he left to make Free Guy.

Principal photography began on May 14, 2019, in Boston, mostly around the city's Financial District. It also took place in the Massachusetts cities of Worcester, Framingham (in the former Framingham Savings Bank building), and Weymouth (at the former Naval Air Station), as well as at Revere Beach and the Paramount Pictures studio headquarters in Los Angeles, California. Filming concluded on July 31, 2019.

Levy decided to hire production designer Ethan Tobman over other candidates with more feature film experience after being inspired by the energy he brought to the project. Together they created a visual bible laying out the rules for their video game world. To split the real world from the in-game look they specified colors, lenses, composition and framing, camera movement, and other details. Levy found it liberating to be influenced by other games and films but not required to make a direct adaptation of an existing franchise. Tobman said the film's game-world design drew primary inspiration from games like SimCity, The Sims and Red Dead Redemption 2, while also acknowledging thematic inspiration from Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite. In order to help Reynolds fully tap into his Guy character after Deadpool, Levy suggested that he tap into his Canadian background and act very friendly, full of joy, a typical Canadian citizen. He also found inspiration in Peter Sellers' role in Being There and Will Ferrell's role in Elf because they played characters who were similar to Guy's character being simple-minded. The film features several weapons from other video game and film franchises, including the Scorpion from Halo: Combat Evolved, a Mega Buster from Mega Man, a lightsaber from Star Wars, one of Fortnite's pickaxes, the gravity gun from Half-Life 2, the portal gun from Portal, as well as Captain America's shield and Hulk's fist from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When the film was acquired by Disney, which owns the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, the filmmakers made a request to use iconic weapons from those properties, and were granted permission to use everything they requested. The cameo by Chris Evans was suggested by Reynolds' wife Blake Lively. Levy contacted Evans, who was already in Boston shooting Defending Jacob and asked if he would come by for ten minutes, and he agreed.

Free Guy grossed $121.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $209.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $331.5 million. In the United States and Canada, Free Guy was released alongside Respect and Don't Breathe 2, and was initially projected to gross $15–18 million from 4,165 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after making $10.5 million on its first day (including $2.2 million from Thursday-night previews), estimates were raised to $26 million. It went on to debut to $28.4 million, topping the box office. The film made $18.5 million in its second weekend, remaining in first. The drop of just 34% marked the smallest second-weekend decline of any wide release of the summer and the second-best of Reynolds' career. In its third weekend, it was beaten by newcomer Candyman, but the film continued to hold well, falling by 27% earning $13.6 million.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on 297 reviews and an average rating of 7/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Combining a clever concept, sweet, self-aware humor, and a charming cast, Free Guy is frivolous fun." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Debruge of Variety magazine called the film an "at-times unwieldy mashup of multiple-reality blockbusters like The Matrix and The Lego Movie" and said that "Free Guy is a lot of fun, despite the fact that Levy and the screenwriters seem to be changing the rules as they go." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times lauded both the "perfectly cast" Reynolds and "superb and charming Jodie Comer." Giving the film three out of four stars, he wrote "Thanks in large part to the vibrant, funny, sweet, endearing work by Reynolds and Comer, Free Guy delivers." A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave the film a C+ grade and said, "For all its casual mayhem, Free Guy turns out to be a rather cuddly crowdpleaser, a high-concept blockbuster trifle with bubblegum ice cream clogging its circuits." Dowd contrasted the film with The Truman Show, saying "Reynolds replicates that slightly unhinged Truman Burbank grin but not the desperation behind it." Nick De Semlyen of Empire was critical of the film; he compared it unfavorably to 2018's Ready Player One, and said that although it is "eager to please" it "doesn't really hang together, even as you're watching it." The film ranks sixth on Rotten Tomatoes' Best Science Fiction Movies of 2021.