Luck hasn’t really been the kindest to Dwayne Johnson in recent times. With the anticlimactic collapse of his furiously-promoted superhero flick Black Adam, his semibiographical show Young Rock getting canceled after three seasons, and a litany of legal troubles lining his doorstep, The Rock is certainly not the picture of prosperity at present. But in what seems to be a case of an unexpected victory, one of the Moana star’s old action movies is currently busy topping streaming records on Netflix.
Skyscraper Becomes the 9th Most Watched Movie on Netflix
Rawson Marshall Thurber’s thriller starring Dwayne Johnson and Neve Campbell is by no means a blockbuster venture. Hell, it’s not even one of the former professional wrestler’s most memorable movies, let alone a highly successful one. But in an unforeseen turn of events, Skyscraper is doing what it couldn’t back in 2018 – breaking records.
As reported by Netflix, the action/adventure which originally tanked at the box office, is currently the ninth-most watched film on the renowned streaming platform. Not only did it make it to the elite Global Top 10 list, but it has already been streamed for a total of 7,500,000 minutes by fans till now.
Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film was the director’s first attempt at experimenting with a different genre than comedy and it also marked his second collaboration with Johnson after 2016’s Central Intelligence. It follows the valiant tale of Johnson’s Will Sawyer, a former FBI agent who embarks on a mission to save his family from a burning skyscraper in Hong Kong whilst simultaneously absolving his name of a crime that he did not commit.
As gripping as its premise might seem though, Skyscraper failed to fare well for itself, even its critical response was lukewarm at best with an average rating of 5.20/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. So, it’s definitely surprising to see the film’s sudden surge in popularity on Netflix.
From A Box Office Failure to Netflix’s Pride
When the Johnson-led action flick hit theatres back, it was chalked up as a financial failure with a disastrous opening weekend of only $25 million. And at the end of its lackluster theatrical run, Skyscraper, which was hauled on a rather hefty production budget of $125 million, excluding all the money spent in marketing and distribution, only brought home a worldwide gross of $304.9 million.
Sub-par reviews owing to what seemed to be an incessantly overused storyline in an action film seemed to be one of the main culprits behind the movie’s underwhelming performance. Some even believed that the Fast X star was pretty much the only reason that even drew in the audience. But it looks like fans are interested in a blast from the past given just how rapidly Johnson’s Skyscraper is ascending to traction.
Hop on to Netflix to stream Skyscraper and see what all the fuss is about!
Source: Netflix
