Magic Mike

Plot

Mike (Channing Tatum) has big plans for a business of his own but pays his bills through a series of odd jobs, most notably performing as the star stripper at Xquisite Strip Club in Tampa, a club owned by Dallas (Matthew McConaughey), who has dreams of creating an "empire" of strip clubs.

Mike soon meets 19-year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer), a recent college dropout looking for a construction job. Mike takes Adam under his wing and encourages him to begin stripping at Xquisite. Mike is introduced to Adam's sister Brooke (Cody Horn). Despite his on-and-off relationship with a woman named Joanna (Olivia Munn), Mike finds himself attracted to Brooke and promises to look after Adam.

Adam falls further into the excessive lifestyle of the Xquisite dancers, using drugs and having sexual encounters with many clients. When Dallas announces he has a plan to move their act to Miami, Mike confides in Brooke that he is tiring of the lifestyle and wants to get a small business loan to pursue his dream of opening a custom furniture business. The bank declines his loan application and Mike realizes that he has to stay in the business to continue to pay his bills. Mike later attends a hurricane party at Dallas' house, where Adam becomes part of a scheme created by Tobias (Gabriel Iglesias), Xquisite's DJ, to sell drugs to Xquisite's clients, and is eventually given a package of ecstasy. Adam begins using drugs regularly, and Mike notices more of Adam's reckless behavior, to the chagrin of Brooke who is relying on Mike to protect him.

A few days later, Mike and Adam perform for a private party at a sorority house where Adam brings the package of drugs with him. At the party, Adam gives a young woman an ecstasy pill causing a brawl between Adam and the woman's boyfriend. Mike and Adam are forced to flee without the drugs, which Adam says were worth $1,000. They also do not collect their payment, which infuriates Dallas. After the next night's show, Mike and Adam take drugs and go to a club. Adam vomits and passes out; Brooke finds him on Mike's floor the next morning. Brooke angrily confronts Mike about his lifestyle, and ends her friendship with him. Tobias and his suppliers break into Mike's house looking for Adam, revealing that the drugs were actually worth $10,000. Mike gives up most of his life savings to pay Adam's debt in full.

Later, before the dancers' final performance at Xquisite, Mike decides he has had enough. Knowing that Dallas has no loyalty to any of them and is driven by greed, Mike leaves the club through the back. After realizing Mike is not coming back, Dallas promotes Adam to replace Mike as lead dancer. Mike drives to Brooke's apartment and tells her he has quit stripping. She has learned what he did for Adam, and she invites him to join her for breakfast. She playfully asks what they can do until morning, and then kisses him.

Cast

Development

Magic Mike is directed by Steven Soderbergh based on a screenplay by Reid Carolin, who is also one of the film's producers. The screenplay is in part inspired by Channing Tatum's experiences as a stripper in Tampa, Florida, when he was 18 years old. Tatum said that he wanted to capture the atmosphere and energy of his past as a stripper, but that the film is fictional, which allowed them to create their own scenarios. The project, announced in April 2011 was co-financed by Soderbergh and Tatum. In 2010, Tatum told an Australian newspaper that he would like to make a movie about his experiences as a stripper, saying, "I've already got the director picked out. I'd like Nicolas Refn, who did the film Bronson, to do it because he's insane for it." Refn initially agreed on doing the film because Tatum and he were going to do another movie together. However, since that project did not get off the ground and due to his busy schedule, Tatum, who was then working with Soderbergh on Haywire, brought him the idea. After Soderbergh cast Tatum and Pettyfer in the lead roles, Carolin spent time revising the screenplay. He wrote the first draft in a month. Soderbergh suggested showing two points of view in the film: seeing through the eyes of young Adam and of his mentor Mike.

The dance numbers were choreographed by Alison Faulk, while Christopher Peterson was in charge of the costumes design and Frankie Pine supervised the music. Over the film, several dance numbers were performed. Music producer Jack Rayner created a special dubstep version of the song "It's Raining Men" sung by Countré Black for the dance sequence that features the ensemble for the first time together without The Kid. For that sequence, Peterson chose to use spray glitter on the umbrellas and raincoats to give them a wet effect. The Kid's first strip did not purposely have any choreography and it was Pettyfer's idea to show his bottom. Before doing his moves, Pettyfer did not know the song that was going to be played which ended up being Madonna's "Like a Virgin" performed by Nashville recording artist Chris Mitchell. The five-stripper group performed the song "Sound Off (The Duckworth Chant)" with lyric changes on the military-themed number. The scene during which Mike and Adam arrive at a sorority house dressed as cops was not in the original script but was Peterson's idea. Music supervisor Pine initially planned to use Kid Rock's "Cowboy" for the cowboy-themed number featuring The Kid. When it was not possible, she chose Big & Rich's "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" instead. Knowing Tatum's dance skills, Faulk gave him the permission to freestyle for Mike's last solo dance on the dubstep song "Calypso" by Excision and Datsik. McConaughey who had no stripping scene in the original script requested to have one which became the last dance number during which he first sings "Ladies of Tampa" and then strips. The song was written in three hours by music supervisor Frankie Pine, Matthew McConaughey and Martin Blasick, McConaughey's guitar coach. The thongs were made by company Pistol Pete.

Casting

On August 16, 2011, it was reported that Matthew McConaughey had landed a role in the film. He was the first person cast, aside from Tatum. McConaughey revealed that Soderbergh called him to offer him the role of Dallas. After Soderbergh pitched him the story, McConaughey laughed and in 10 minutes he accepted the role. It was the second time he accepted a role over the phone; the first time was for a Richard Linklater film. Commenting on the role, the actor said: "I knew that I was just going to be able to fly. It was really fun to play someone so committed, in many ways." Joe Manganiello accepted the role of Big Dick Richie after talking to What to Expect When You're Expecting co-star Chris Rock who convinced him to do it. Cody Horn gave her insight on how she got the part of Brooke:

They weren't going to see me because they thought I was too young, but my agent, Jason, fought for me to go in. Carmen Cuba, the casting director, agreed to meet with me, and we taped the interview. She asked me questions about my life, my dating history, things like that. We talked like girlfriends would; it was more friendly than a formal interview. I then got a call that I was to go in and audition for them, which I did. After we finished the scenes, Carmen excused the guy I was reading with and said, "this will never happen to you again for the rest of your career, but you booked the role before you came in."

The cast visited a strip club to see what this world was like and the dance routines and to get information on the backstage life. To prepare for the role, McConaughey went in a Los Angeles strip mall to get used to regular waxing. Matt Bomer had to put on about 15 pounds for his part. Adam Rodriguez went through a cardio and weights training.

Filming

Principal photography commenced in Playa del Rey, Los Angeles in September 2011 and concluded in Tampa by late October. The scenes that took place in the fictional club Xquisite were filmed in Studio City, Los Angeles. Locations in Florida included the Fort Desoto Bridge, the Dunedin coast, the Gulf of Mexico, Tampa, Ybor City, St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, and Tierra Verde. Soderbergh chose to shoot the entirety of the film with a double straw camera filter, except the interior of the club.

Music

The soundtrack was released on June 28, 2012, through WaterTower Music. Other songs featured in the film include Cobra Starship's "#1Nite", Sean Paul's "Got 2 Luv U", and Ginuwine's "Pony".

Release

Warner Bros. Pictures acquired US distribution rights to the independently produced film on October 27, 2011. Magic Mike was first screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival as the closing film on June 24, 2012, and was widely released on June 29, 2012, in the United States.

Marketing

The first full-length trailer for Magic Mike was released on iTunes on April 18, 2012 with a poster indicating the film's name. The first poster featuring the cast was released on June 1, 2012, along with a new trailer. A second poster followed on June 4, 2012, and a fourth trailer was released on June 13, 2012. To promote the film, Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer participated in a photo shoot for Entertainment Weekly that came out in the May 25, 2012, issue. On June 3, 2012, Tatum, McConaughey, and Manganiello attended the MTV Movie Awards where they presented the award for Best On-Screen Transformation. During the presentation, Manganiello arrived dressed as a fireman stripper.

The promotional campaign, which originally centered on women, also targeted the gay community after it had been made clear that there was a strong interest among them. Warner Bros. enlisted entertainment marketing agency the Kartel Group to market the film to gay men. Website AfterElton.com noted that gay men could not connect with the first trailer as the film "was marketed as a romantic comedy" through Tatum and Horn's relationship, but that it changed when the campaign also focused on "the male form part of it [the film]" through a red-band trailer (the fourth one). In June 2012, a Magic Mike float was included in the West Hollywood gay pride parade and in other gay pride events such as in New York and in San Francisco.

Box office

Magic Mike proved to be a box office hit, grossing $113,721,571 and $53,500,000 outside North America with a total gross of $167,221,571 worldwide from a modest $7 million budget; it is the top-grossing movie under the Dance genre. On its opening day (June 29, 2012), the film performed better than expected, earning about $19 million including a $2 million midnight run. It finished the weekend at the second spot behind Ted with a total of $39,127,170. It was the first time two R-rated films grossed more than $21 million each during a weekend. CinemaScore reported that audiences gave a "B" average grade.

On its opening weekend, Magic Mike attracted an audience of 73% females, with 43% of the audience being over the age of 35. Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. Pictures President of Domestic Distribution, said this phenomenon could be compared to Sex and the City, which had also appealed to large groups of women.

Magic Mike was more successful in red states than in blue ones. Ticket sales in St. Louis and Nashville was more than 30% over the average. However ticket sales in New York City was 30% below the average.

Critical response

Magic Mike received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 81%, based on 192 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Magic Mike's sensitive direction, smart screenplay, and strong performances allows audiences to have their beefcake and eat it too." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating based reviews from mainstream critics, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 38 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The movie also launched Academy Award buzz for Matthew McConaughey as Dallas. However, he was not selected for inclusion among the nominees, which was described as a "snub" by many.

Top ten lists

Magic Mike was listed on many critics' top ten lists.

Home media

Magic Mike was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on October 23, 2012. Within its first week, 698,497 DVD units were sold, generating revenue of $10,449,515. As of December 23, 2012, DVD sales totaled over 1.9 million units with $26,362,047 in revenue.

Sequel

In a Twitter Q&A in July 2012, Tatum confirmed work on a sequel: "Yes, yes and yes! We're working on the concept now. We want to flip the script and make it bigger." By March 2014, Magic Mike first assistant director Gregory Jacobs had been chosen to direct the sequel, titled Magic Mike XXL, which began shooting in late 2014. The film was released on July 1, 2015.

Stage musical

Reid Carolin, who wrote the film, is adapting the film as a stage musical for Broadway.