Odd Luck Theory

Odd Luck Theory is a 2016 Canadian comedy film directed by Joseph Fuchigami and written by Francis Yelich.

The film was announced in June 2014 by South Star Pictures. Various actors were approached to star before Alan Hart, Philippa Lacau, and Igor Jakimovski all signed in March 2015. Filming began in Montreal that November.

Odd Luck Theory was released on November 25, 2016 by South Star Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box-office sensation. Upon opening, South Star Pictures wasn't confident with the overall production. To their surprise, it was the second-highest grossing Canadian film of 2016.

Characters
Anthony Meyers
 * Portrayed by: Igor Jakimovski
 * Although blind, Anthony is adventurous and often funny.

Tyler Meyers
 * Portrayed by: Alan Hart
 * Tyler is Anthony's younger brother.

Layla Iversen
 * Portrayed by: Philippa Lacau
 * Layla is a graphic artist and occasional comedian.

Alex Meyers
 * Portrayed by: Angelina Mawr
 * Alex is a home-schooled student and the younger sister of Tyler and Anthony.

Dolores Cozma
 * Portrayed by: Alona Halper
 * A self-employed performance artist, Dolores is often crazy and thinks that Anthony and Tyler are Atsushi and Takahiro, respectively. Anthony and Tyler get annoyed whenever Dolores thinks that.

Box office
Odd Luck Theory has grossed $183 million in Canada, and $423 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $606 million, against a production budget of around $48 million.

Critical response
On a number of review aggregators across Canada, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 278 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Odd Luck Theory manages to gain an action-packed premise on an eye-popping comedy that tells an entertaining story." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by Sharper Insights gave the film a rare grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Lawsuit
In August 2016, a number of companies outside Canada, including Rhythm Zone, the record label of successful Japanese pop group EXILE, who released "Rising Sun" in 2011, filed a lawsuit against South Star Pictures for using gags and situations in a film they have no involvement with, including the tagline "All rising, no sun", as well as Dolores trying to mistake Anthony and Tyler for EXILE's vocalists Atsushi Satō and Takahiro Tasaki, respectively. In response, South Star issued a statement indicating their persistence to keep the marketing for the film unchanged. On September 14, 2016 - exactly five years after EXILE released "Rising Sun", the lawsuit was rejected by the presiding judge for the case, with South Star issuing a brief statement soon thereafter:

"“EXILE is very popular among western J-pop fanatics, but we're not quite sure why the group's record label would criticize Odd Luck Theory for using situations they're not involved in. Imagine the same thing happening with the proposed sequel or other movies we plan to produce in the future.”"

Some subsequent television spots for the film made references to the lawsuit by starting the ads with "From the studio that was sued by companies outside Canada…"