It’s possible, even likely, that the film was able to pick up some revenue on the Blu-ray and Digital front, but either way, this was no blockbuster.
When additional costs like marketing are added into that, one has to assume the theatrical release probably lost money.
Not every movie needs to make a billion dollars, but at the end of the day, making movies is a business and if people don’t make money on a project they’re unlikely to take a risk on a sequel.
While the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator has The Nice Guys sitting at an impressive 92% positive rating, the film only grossed about $62 million around the world on a reported production budget of about $50 million, all things considered, the two lead actors probably accounted for most of that budget.