Escape Room: Tournament of Champions

In February 2019, a sequel to Escape Room was announced as being in active development, with Adam Robitel set to return to direct along with screenwriter Bragi F. Schut and producer Neal H. Moritz.[8]

In April 2019, Robitel stated in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that one of the challenges the production team faced in its development was to figure out how to design new escape rooms that would outdo those the original film featured. He said:

We did fire, gravity, ice, cold, gas so we need to outdo ourselves now. We're in the box. I can't draw and quarter somebody, so what are those visual ticking clocks? We have some cool stuff we're developing and hopefully, the audience will think that way too, but it's tougher.[9]

He continued, "We're knee deep in developing the sequel. We're exploring various ideas with how it all plays out."[8]

He intended the first film's final scene, which depicted an escape room disguised as a hijacked airplane, to suggest that Minos, the organization behind the deadly escape rooms, may be more powerful, sinister and given to surveilling than previously thought, which he planned to expand upon in the sequel.[8] He said:

I think the implication is that Minos is far more widespread in the halls of power in our society than we realize. [. . .] I think we're in a time of real paranoia, whether it's institutions or the police state. We've never been in a time of such divisiveness as a culture, so we always love the idea.[9]

The film's official title, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, was announced in a press conference on May 20, 2021.[10]

In October 2019, Collider reported that Isabelle Fuhrman had joined the cast, alongside returning cast members Taylor Russell and Logan Miller.[4] Later that month, Holland Roden, Thomas Cocquerel, Indya Moore, and Carlito Olivero also joined the cast.[5]

The film was originally scheduled to be released on April 17, 2020.[11] Its release date was subsequently changed several times,[12] and in May 2020, it was scheduled to be released on January 1, 2021.[13] In October 2020, Sony moved the film to sometime later in 2021.[14] In January 2021, it was announced that the film's release date would be pushed back again, to January 7, 2022.[15] The film was later moved up to July 16, 2021.[16] The film was first released in Australia on July 1, 2021.[17]

When asked about whether the film would also be available to stream at the same time it was released to theaters to accommodate those uncertain of the safety of in-theater attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Robitel stated that the film will pursue a standard theatrical release with no streaming alternative because he believes that the darkness of the standard theater room would allow the film to be at its most frightening and thrilling.[18]

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions was released digitally on September 21 and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 5, 2021, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.[19] The video edition will contain an extended and alternative version of the film with a new plot and characters and a different ending.[20][21][7]

Prior to release, the extended cut of the film was reported to feature 25 minutes of new footage; however, upon release it was discovered that the runtime of the film was only six minutes longer than the theatrical cut. The extended version of the film largely reshapes the plot of the film, entirely removing Deborah Ann Woll's character from the film. Isabelle Fuhrman and James Frain instead appear as Claire and Henry, respectively, who reveal more about Minos' inner workings behind the scenes. This large change in narrative has led critics to wonder how future installments of the franchise will be affected by these "incompatible" plotlines.[22][23][24]

In the extended cut, the film opens with Henry, revealed to be a designer of the escape rooms. When his wife Sonya threatens to divorce him and take their daughter Claire with her, she ends up trapped in the sauna when it turns into an escape room. However, she does not solve it in time to escape and is killed.

Later in the film, when there is a malfunction during the Acid Rain room's transition, Zoey is taken to a department of Minos where she meets Claire, who turns out to be the actual puzzle maker. Claire has been locked up in a room by her father, who is one of the higher-ups in Minos and who has forced her to create elaborate escape rooms after which he has taken all of the credit. Claire begs Zoey to help her get out of the room. Up until that point Zoey has been hesitant, until it is revealed Ben has been saved by Claire who created a secret compartment under the quicksand for him to fall into. However, Ben is found by Henry's men and thrown into the final room: a sauna. With Zoey's help Claire manages to break out and is then met by her father. Zoey and Claire succeed in fighting Claire's father off and they save Ben. Claire locks the Minos employees inside the control room, and suggests Zoey report her findings to the police.

After Zoey escapes to the original location where she finds Ben in an ambulance, it is revealed that Claire was the mastermind all along. When she was younger, she tried to be as bad as possible in an attempt to see if her parents truly loved her as she is. When her mother Sonya said that she was getting her help by sending her away, Claire murdered her in the sauna. Claire ultimately traps her father in her old room and kills him.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions grossed $25.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $40.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $66 million.[2][25]

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Space Jam: A New Legacy, Pig, and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, and was projected to gross $7–10 million from 2,775 theaters in its opening weekend.[1][26] The film made $3.8 million on its first day, including $1.2 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $8.8 million, finishing third at the box office.[27] It fell 60 percent in its second weekend to $3.5 million, finishing sixth.[28]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Escape Room: Tournament of Champions may appeal to fans of the original who've been hoping for a sequel, but its increasingly convoluted rules add up to a very unpleasant game night."[29] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on review from 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[30] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, the same as the first film, while PostTrak reported 69% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 44% saying they would definitely recommend it.[27]

William Bibbiani of the TheWrap wrote: "Make no mistake: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions may be fun, it's also incredibly stupid. The premise makes no sense. The mechanics make no sense. The plot makes no sense. Look elsewhere for storytelling sanity. Look here if you want to see confident, creepy absurdity, with a ghoulish imagination and showmanship to spare."[31]

Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club gave the film a "C+", writing: "After 30 or 40 minutes, it becomes clear that, despite a few more callbacks, this is a more-of-the-same sequel, not a next-level sequel."[32] From The Hollywood Reporter, John DeFore called the film an "underwhelming attempt to turn a tight little thriller into a sequel-spawning franchise" and said: "Tournament provides genre buffs with a lesson in diminishing returns, and may leave most of them impatient for an unambiguous 'Game Over.'"[33]