With back-to-back action releases one after the other, it seems as if Ryan Reynolds has now become the not-so-secret ingredient for a successful action extravaganza. But if there is one thing to know about Hollywood, it is that it can give a pendulum a run for its money with how oscillating its nature is. A high school sweetheart in one movie can easily be coined as horror in the other. And that is exactly what Reynolds faced for most of his years before he struck gold with Deadpool.

The 46-year-old was adamant about making a jump from the soft padding of rom-coms to the action genre. And that is exactly how he crash-landed into Green Lantern, a movie that lost $75 million at the box office. However, in the lows and lows of Reynolds’ early action era, it was hard to tell which one is worse.

It started with what looked like a promising project in the form of Blade: Trinity. The movie barely touches the 25% Rotten Tomato Score. Fortunately, it managed to make more than the $65 million production budget and none of the cast involved came back as its worst enemy. R.I.P.D. however, did not enjoy the same luck.

Directed by Robert Schwentke, R.I.P. D. boasted of a star-studded cast and whispered a Men In Black-esque plot. The movie’s $78.3 million earnings trickled like the last coins of an empty wallet against its whopping budget of approximately $130 million. Rumor has it that if you look at it long enough, it spells flop. Whether that is true or not is up to you to decide, but Ryan Reynolds was at the lowest point of his career with this debacle in 2013.

The downfall era that started with Blade: Trinity, was followed by Smokin Aces, X-Men Origins Wolverine, and Green Lantern. All failing to make any noise at the box office. One began to doubt if Ryan Reynolds had the capability to bounce back after such a dismal run at the box office. However, he escaped this chain reaction of disasters with a hit that bounced him from his nadir to the pinnacle in one sweep.

How Ryan Reynolds made himself a fan-favorite action hero?

By tasting the saltiest of failures time and again with his early action movies, Ryan Reynolds learned to joke about it. Whether it was a conscious decision or just a by-product of making consecutive flops, the actor had completely given up on hiding behind a facade.

This helped him amass a following that went to the theatres simply to watch him be himself. And Deadpool was all that, and so much more. The movie proved to be not only a box office success but also left the critics speechless. This is how Reynolds saw his biggest flop and greatest hit in the same decade.

Did you know that Ryan Reynolds failed not once, but multiple times as an action star? Let us know in the comments below.