Netflix’s ‘new’ action blockbuster debuts at #1 in 54 countries, but it’s easy to see why it spent 5 years sitting on the shelf

Despite investing hundreds of millions of dollars on star-studded action blockbusters, Netflix has ironically landed one of its biggest debuts of the year so far after rescuing somebody else’s unwanted castoff from the scrapheap, with Hidden Strike wasting no time in laying waste to the charts.

Per FlixPatrol, the interminable buddy caper starring Jackie Chan and John Cena has become the number one most-watched movie in 54 countries worldwide since being added to the platform yesterday, blowing the competition out of the water to reign supreme as the top-viewed feature among subscribers the length and breadth of the planet.

What the company failed to mention when it slapped Hidden Strike with the “Netflix Original” branding was that the movie shot over five years ago, but was placed into the cinematic equivalent of cryogenic stasis for half a decade. For a long time, it looked as though Need for Speed and The Expendables 4 director Scott Waugh’s effects-heavy monstrosity would never see the light of day, until the streamer swooped in a matter of weeks ago and decided it was a gamble worth taking.

It may boast some of the most unconvincing green screen and sketchy CGI you’re likely to see this summer in anything not called The Flash, but Netflix has already been proven right that it was the correct decision to salvage Hidden Strike from its prison and transform it into the latest in the unending procession of explosive actioners that get trashed by critics, and yet still perform among viewers.