Remember Red One, that Christmas action-comedy that only came out over a month ago? It didn’t seem like anything you needed to rush out to see, and sure enough, audiences basically didn’t rush out to see. At the time, Amazon basically said it was alright with the film fizzling in theaters—it made $176.9 million worldwide, and reportedly cost $200-$250 million to make—since the Prime Video launch would make make up for it. Sure enough, Amazon was right, and the film’s big star was happy to tout its successful numbers.
Last week, Amazon announced Red One hit 50 million views in its first four days on Prime Video after coming to the service on December 12. It hit that milestone faster than Road House’s two-week run from earlier this year and now stands as the most-watched movie from Amazon MGM Studios on the service. Dwayne Johnson, who’s always on business, later declared his film “made a little history” and “has a long shelf life with multiple verticals – kudos to our Amazon partners for their strategic win, that’s just getting started. […] Massive THANK YOU to you and your families around the world who tuned in. Ain’t too shabby.”
Our little Christmas movie, RED ONE shattered a viewing record for @amazon @PrimeVideo with 50 million viewers this past weekend.
RED ONE has a long shelf life with multiple verticals – kudos to our Amazon partners for their strategic win, that’s just getting started.
And most… pic.twitter.com/XBgO4tNa0j
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 19, 2024
You may remember after Black Adam hit theaters in 2022, reports indicated it wouldn’t turn a profit at the box office. Johnson proceeded to go on the defense and say the movie was more of a winner than it seemed, but it came off as a bit insecure. Not long after, separate reports alleged the actor went over several WB execs to make a play keep playing Black Adam, get Henry Cavill back as Superman, and an eventual film where their characters would face off. That didn’t go well, and in the years since, some of Johnson’s shine further dimmed with recent claims of holding up Red One’s production (and bringing it over budget) by being late on set.
Between Black Adam and Red One, Johnson found himself going back to safe bets like Moana 2 (and a live-action remake for the first film) and the Fast & Furious franchise, which he quietly backed off from after Hobbs & Shaw. But he’s also seemingly trying some new things, namely next year’s wrestling/MMA biopic The Smashing Machine and some mysterious project with J.J. Abrams. With how big Red One ended up, a sequel could happen, since Amazon’s also granted a follow up to Road House. As for how this affects Johnson’s future projects going forward? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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