Gerard Butler’s 98-Minute Sci-Fi Misfire Has Only Grossed a 10th of Jason Statham’s Beloved Franchise-Starter

1 week ago 15

Jason Statham as Adam Clay with his hands up outside a mansion in The Beekeeper

Published 29 minutes ago

Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).

The last few days have been quite disappointing for Gerard Butler's new film, the sci-fi sequel Greenland 2: Migration, and its namesake nation. The movie fell out of the domestic box office top five, as it found itself outgrossed by the 25th anniversary re-release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Greenland 2 has made only around $15 million so far at the global box office, which isn't a good sign at all, especially taking into account the film's hefty reported budget of $90 million. In fact, it's among the most expensive movies that Butler has headlined in the last decade, at least since fellow sci-fi misfire Geostorm.

In its opening weekend of release, Greenland 2 grossed only around $8 million domestically, which is roughly half of what Butler's fellow action star, Jason Statham, delivered with The Beekeeper a couple of years ago. Statham's film went on to generate around $160 million at the global box office, and has seemingly inspired a franchise. The Beekeeper 2 is in the works, and will probably be released in a few months. Statham and The Beekeeper director David Ayer reunited only a year later with A Working Man, which made just under $100 million worldwide itself. Both movies proved to be highly popular with audiences, with The Beekeeper currently sitting at a "verified hot" 92% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the crowd's consensus reads, "Fast-paced and full of action, The Beekeeper delivers everything Jason Statham fans will be looking for."

'Greenland 2' Earned Mixed Reviews

The Beekeeper 2 is being helmed by Timo Tjahjanto, who last directed Nobody 2. Greenland 2 saw returning director Ric Roman Waugh at the helm, and was released five years after the first Greenland emerged as a massive hit on home video following a negligible theatrical run. However, the second installment doesn't seem to have struck a chord with audiences. It's also possible that everybody involved simply overestimated the original's cultural worth. Greenland 2 is sitting at a 49% score on RT, where the consensus reads, "The world ends more with a whimper in Greenland 2: Migration compared to its predecessor's big bang thrills, but Gerard Butler's sturdy star power keeps this continuation reasonably compelling." Incidentally, Waugh and Statham's film together, Shelter, is due out this month as well. You can watch Greenland 2 in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.