Production notes

In February 2010, it was reported Universal Pictures had acquired the David Guggenheim penned spec script Safe House, about a young CIA agent who must find a way to transport a dangerous prisoner to another safe house when the one he works at is compromised, with Scott Stuber set to produce. Universal acquired the script following a heated bidding war between several other producers and studios. In July of that year, Denzel Washington had entered talks to star in the film with Daniel Espinosa set to direct and perform a rewrite on the script with Guggenheim. Safe House appeared on the 2010 Black List of best unproduced screenplays. By August, Ryan Reynolds was the front runner for the role opposite Washington. In February 2011, it was reported that Liam Cunningham, Brendan Gleeson, Robert Patrick and Sam Shepard had joined the cast. Prior to the rewrites, the script originally took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Safe House grossed $126.4 million in the United States, and $81.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $208.1 million. Safe House earned $13.6 million on opening day, and a total of $40.2 million over the weekend, finishing second behind The Vow. The film was the second-biggest opener for Washington, behind American Gangster ($43.6 million), and third-best for Reynolds behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($85.1 million) and Green Lantern ($53.2 million), respectively. In its second weekend, it finished first at $23.6 million. It became the second film in 2012 to cross the $100 million mark domestically after The Vow and the fourth film to cross the mark worldwide after Underworld: Awakening, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and The Vow.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 52% of 192 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Safe House stars Washington and Reynolds are let down by a thin script and choppily edited action sequences." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.