Scott wanted to make a film about the Gucci dynasty after acquiring rights to Forden's book in the early 2000s. The project languished for several years, with several directors and actors rumored to be considered before Scott and Gaga became officially attached in November 2019. Much of the remaining cast joined the following summer, and filming began in Italy, lasting from February through May 2021.
The world premiere ofHouse of Gucci was held at theOdeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on November 9, 2021. It was theatrically released in the United States on November 24, 2021. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast's performances but criticized the inconsistent tone and editing. Gaga and Leto were nominated for theScreen Actors Guild Award,Critics' Choice Award, andSatellite Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, while Gaga also received nominations for theGolden Globe Award andBAFTA Award. The film also earned a nomination at the94th Academy Awards forBest Makeup and Hairstyling. It grossed more than $153 million against a $75 million budget.
In Italy in 1978,Patrizia Reggiani is the office manager of her father's small trucking firm. At a party, she meetsMaurizio Gucci, a law student and heir to a 50% interest in theGucci fashion house through his fatherRodolfo. Patrizia aggressively pursues the awkward Maurizio, charming him into a romantic relationship.
Rodolfo warns Maurizio that Patrizia is after only his wealth, and tells him that he willdisinherit him if he marries Patrizia. Maurizio chooses Patrizia over his connection to Gucci, leaving the family. Patrizia and Maurizio marry, and he is hired by the trucking company.
When Patrizia becomes pregnant, she considers her child to be an avenue for familial reconciliation, and lets that information slip to Maurizio's uncleAldo, who is delighted and takes the couple under his wing.
Aldo introduces Patrizia to his eccentric sonPaolo, who aspires to be a designer within Gucci despite his apparent lack of talent. Aldo helps Maurizio and a terminally ill Rodolfo reconcile shortly before the latter's death. Rodolfo returns Maurizio to his will, but, before he dies, fails to sign the document bequeathing to him the 50% interest in Guccishares, so Patrizia forges Rodolfo's signature on Rodolfo's updated testament.
Patrizia devises a plot to obtain a controlling interest in Gucci by acquiring some of Aldo's and Paolo's shares (the other 50%). She clashes with Aldo over the firm's clandestine sale of cheap "fake" Gucci products on theblack market, and consults Giuseppina "Pina", apsychic, for guidance on how to manipulate Maurizio, who has little interest in Gucci, into taking a more active role within the company.
Paolo acquires proof that Aldo has beenevading taxes in the United States. He gives the info to Patrizia in exchange for her promise that he be allowed to design his own product line. Aldo is arrested by theIRS and sentenced toa year and a day in prison.
Patrizia lies to the Italian police and tells them that Paolo is not authorized to use the Guccitrademark, so they stop his fashion show by force. Patrizia and Maurizio ask Paolo to sell his shares to them, but he rebuffs and cuts ties with them.
Italian police search Maurizio's, attempting to arrest him for forging Rodolfo's signature. His family flees to Switzerland, where Maurizio meets his old friendPaola Franchi. After an argument between Maurizio and Patrizia, he decides that he is tired of his wife's influence on him and the company. He orders his wife and daughter to return to Italy, and begins an affair with Paola, which Pina senses.
When Maurizio's business plans harm the company, he seeks assistance from investment firmInvestcorp, through which he hatches a scheme to acquire shares of the company from a now-impoverished Paolo. Aldo returns from prison and immediately realizes what Paolo has done. When Investcorp offers to buy out Aldo, he refuses until Maurizio reveals himself to be the deal's instigator. Dejected, Aldo sells the shares and cuts contact with Maurizio.
Patrizia attempts a reconciliation with Maurizio, but he flatly ignores her. He soon asks her for a divorce through his longtime assistantDomenico De Sole, a request that she refuses. Maurizio recruits up-and-coming designerTom Ford to revitalize the company's image through a new line. His products are successful, but Maurizio has so thoroughly mismanaged the company that, by 1995, Investcorp's leaders feel compelled to buy him out, replacing him with Tom and Domenico.
Patrizia eventually grows so furious with Maurizio that she asks Pina to help her assassinate him, so Pina puts her in contact with two hitmen. A few days later, they shoot Maurizio to death in broad daylight outside his office.
Patrizia takes her husband's last name while announcing herself in court, indicating that she still considers herself to be a Gucci, even if the law does not.
Patrizia, Pina and the hitmen are sentenced to long prison terms following their arrests for murder. Aldo dies ofprostate cancer in 1990, and Paolo dies in poverty shortly following the sale of their shares to Maurizio. Gucci is fully acquired by Investcorp, and continues to be successfully managed. No Gucci family members remain at the company.
In June 2006,Ridley Scott was set to direct a film forParamount Pictures about the downfall of the Gucci family dynasty, withAndrea Berloff writing the script,[4] despite the family's dismissal of the project,[5] withAngelina Jolie andLeonardo DiCaprio rumored to play Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci.[6] In February 2012, Scott's daughterJordan Scott had replaced him as director and was in talks withPenélope Cruz to play Reggiani.[7] In November 2016,Wong Kar-wai took over as director from Jordan Scott, withCharles Randolph writing alongside Berloff, andMargot Robbie now considered to play Reggiani.[8] In November 2019, Ridley Scott was again set to direct the film,[why?] withRoberto Bentivegna writing the script, andLady Gaga set to star.[9] According to the GucciCEO,Marco Bizzarri, the fashion house cooperated with the production and gave them full access to their archives for wardrobe and props.[10]
Gaga explained that she took into account how her longtime friend Tony Bennett "feels about Italians being represented in film in terms of crime", and aspired to "make a real person out of Patrizia, not a caricature".[11] To achieve that, she studied Reggiani's vocal cadence and attitude. She explained, "I felt the best way to honor Maurizio and Italians was for my performance to be authentic, from the perspective of a woman. Not anItalian-American woman, but an Italian woman."[11] She stayed in character for 18 months, speaking with an accent for nine months during that period. She also ad-libbed many of her lines, including the film's iconic quote, "Father, son and House of Gucci", which wentviral after the release of the film's first trailer.[12][13]
In August 2020, it was reported that filming was expected to begin when Scott completed production ofThe Last Duel (2021).[14] On February 3, 2021, Leto said that the film was still in thepre-production phase, and that they would start shooting inItaly in the coming weeks.[24]Principal photography began inRome at the end of February, withCOVID-19 safety precautions in place.[25][26][27]
House of Gucci had its world premiere at theOdeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on November 9, 2021. It was released theatrically in North America on November 24, 2021,[14][32] and in the United Kingdom on November 26.[33][34] Following its theatrical release, it was available to stream onParamount+.[35]House of Gucci became available for wider streaming on February 1, 2022. It was released onBlu-ray andDVD on February 22.[36]
Overall, the marketing campaign delivered at least 1.2 billion impressions and 407 million views online. Marketing tactics included radio, social and ticketing partnerships, television spots, and promotions onTikTok, Twitter andSnapchat. Crimepodcasts were used to attract younger audiences. In theaters, trailers for the film ran during screenings ofRespect,Free Guy,Dear Evan Hansen,No Time to Die,Halloween Kills,The Last Duel andEternals.[37] By November 25,United Artists Releasing had spent $12.8 million on television advertisements promoting the film.[38]
House of Gucci grossed $53.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $99.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $153.2 million.[3][39]
In the United States and Canada,House of Gucci was released alongsideEncanto andResident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, and was originally projected to gross $15-to-20 million from 3,441 theaters in its five-day opening weekend.[40][37]
The film opened nationwide on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, and made $4.2 million on its first day—including $1.3 million from Tuesday night previews—from a total of 345,000 theater admissions.House of Gucci went on to debut to a $22 million five-day opening.[41]
The main reasons given for seeing the film were Lady Gaga (40%), the ensemble cast (32%) and the plot (34%).[38] 45% of audiences were between the ages of 18 and 34, and 34% over the age of 45, a higher-than-average result for a drama film targeting an older audience during the COVID-19 pandemic. According toDeadline Hollywood,House of Gucci had the best box-office opening for a drama film sinceLittle Women in 2019,[37][42] andForbes predicted that the film would become "by far, the most 'successful' adult-skewing non-action drama of the so-called pandemic era".[43]
The film made $7 million in its second weekend,[44][45] $4.1 million in its third,[46][47] $1.99 million in its fourth,[48][49] and $915,339 in its fifth.[50][51] In its seventh weekend, the film crossed the $50 million mark in the U.S. and Canada, while also finishing tenth at the box office with $616,744.[52][53]
Outside the U.S. and Canada, the film earned $12.8 million from 40 markets in its opening weekend; the top countries in its first five days were the U.K. ($3.4 million), France ($1.9 million), Mexico ($975,000), Spain ($795,000), and the Netherlands ($629,000).[54] The film went on to make $14.8 million in its second weekend and $10.1 million in its third.[55][56] In its fourth weekend,House of Gucci grossed $4.1 million and crossed the $100 million mark worldwide.[57] The film earned $3.16 million in its sixth weekend,[58] $4 million in its seventh,[59] $4.4 million in its eighth,[60] and $2.8 million in its ninth.[61]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 61% of 371 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "House of Gucci vacillates between inspired camp and dour drama too often to pull off a confident runway strut, but Lady Gaga's note-perfect performance has a timeless style all its own."[62]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 59 out of 100 based on 59 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[63] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F, while those atPostTrak gave it an 82% positive score, with 60% saying that they would recommend it.
Deadline Hollywood noted a strong divide between critics and audiences, and said, "It appears moviegoers are overpowering."[38]
Screen Rant commented that although the film received mixed reviews from critics, the performances of the cast were highly praised, with particular emphasis on Lady Gaga, Al Pacino, and Jared Leto.[64]
Alissa Wilkinson ofVox gave the film a mixed review, praising the performances but criticizing the screenplay and writing. "The movie the trailer is selling is actually a little more dishy and wild than the realHouse of Gucci, which would be a pointless and somewhat perfunctory dud if it weren't for the brilliance, or madness, of the performances."[65]
Reviewing the film forThe Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney wrote, "Ridley Scott's film is a trashtacular watch that I wouldn't have missed for the world. But it fails to settle on a consistent tone — overlong and undisciplined as it careens between high drama andopera buffa."[66]
Richard Roeper of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, writing, "Adam Driver (who has now played a French squire and an Italian fashion heir in consecutive Ridley Scott movies) and Lady Gaga have legit chemistry together, and it's still a kick to see Al Pacino roaring like a lion in winter. But Hayek and Irons are playing cardboard-thin characters, Leto flounders about as if he's in a movie all his own, andHouse of Gucci feels coldly calculating when it should have been flush and warm with scandaloussensationalism."[67]
Writing forThe New York Times,A. O. Scott found the film to be a missed opportunity that could have been crafted more in line with better cinematic standards, stating that it lacks "the necessary vision or inspiration".[68]
Gaga'sItalian accent was met with criticism by Italian actress anddialect coach Francesca De Martini, who worked on the set as a dialogue coach for Hayek, and claimed that Gaga's "accent is not exactly an Italian accent, it sounds moreRussian".[69]
BBC stated that Leto's portrayal of Paolo Gucci inspired "both ridicule and irritation".[70] Film criticMark Kermode described his performance as "parodic", writing that "while others adopt faintly ridiculous Italian inflections, Leto delivers his lines in a string of high-pitched whoops that suggest he is attempting to communicate with whales".[71]
David Ehrlich ofIndieWire described Leto as "brilliantly over-the-top".[72]
Responding to negative reviews characterizing the cast's performances as "high-flown and jarringly incongruous", Michael Shindler ofThe American Conservative wrote that such comments overlook those performances' relation to the film's "dramatic substance", "a conflict of high-flown and jarringly incongruous personalities vying to remake Gucci in their own image", arguing that the film, like Scott'sAll the Money in the World, is ahistorical drama about the emergence of "a new man whose very character is adapted to the demands of contemporary commerce", comparingJ. Paul Getty's role in the latter to that of Tom Ford.[73]
In January 2021, during an interview with Italian magazineNovella 2000, Patrizia Reggiani approved that Gaga would portray her and commented that she "immensely" likes her, saying, "she's a genius".[74] However, in March, Reggiani gave an interview to theAgenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), in which she stated that she was "annoyed" that Gaga had not contacted her to meet her, and claimed that "it is not an economic question. I won't get a cent from the film. It is a question of good sense and respect."[75]
Later that month, it was confirmed that the producers did not want Gaga to meet her, and that they were "aware of not wanting to endorse or support the awful crime" that she committed, saying that Gaga had watched much footage and many documentaries, and read books about her life.[76] Gaga also stated that she has no interest in "colluding" with Reggiani, but that her heart goes "out to her daughters... I do care deeply that this must be very painful for them".[77]
Patrizia Gucci, who is Paolo Gucci's daughter and Maurizio Gucci's first cousin once removed, told theAssociated Press, in the name of the Gucci family, that they were "truly disappointed" by the film. "They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system." She added, "Our family has an identity, privacy. We can talk about everything, but there is a borderline that cannot be crossed."
According to Gucci, the three central concerns of the family are inaccuracies in the film, the lack of contact with Ridley Scott, and the casting of high-profile actors to play people who were not connected with the murder. She also said that the Gucci family will decide what their next course of action will be after watching the completed film.[78] Scott rejected her claims, saying, "You have to remember that one Gucci was murdered and another went to jail for tax evasion so you can't be talking to me about making a profit. As soon as you do that you become part of the public domain."[79]
Tom Ford, in an article forAir Mail, stated that he "felt as though [he] had lived through a hurricane when [he] left the theater", saying that, despite laughing on a few occasions, he found it "hard for [him] to see the humor and camp in something that was so bloody. In real life, none of it was camp. It was at times absurd, but ultimately it was tragic."
Ford praised most of the cast, although he did criticize Pacino's and Leto's performances, comparing them toSaturday Night Live performers, and adding on the latter, "Leto's brilliance as an actor is literally buried under latex prosthetics. Paolo, whom I met on several occasions, was indeed eccentric and did some wacky things, but his overall demeanor was certainly not like the crazed and seemingly mentally challenged character of Leto's performance." While not directly commenting on his role in the film nor Reeve Carney's portrayal of him, Ford noted that the moment of Maurizio's toasting of him was inaccurate, as he had already been bought out by the company before Ford became Gucci's creative director.[80][81]
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