When you’re as popular as Dwayne Johnson, box office failure isn’t really something that crosses your mind, and the world’s highest-paid movie star boasts one of the modern era’s strongest track records of commercial success, even if the critics aren’t always particularly enthused.
To illustrate the point, the last time Johnson either appeared in or produced a film that didn’t make at least twice its production costs back in theaters came eleven years ago with R-rated old school thriller Faster, which topped out at $35 million against a $24 million budget. To put that into perspective, since then he’s lent his talents to a further 20 titles as either an actor, producer or both, which is a phenomenal hot streak.
Of course, sometimes these movies aren’t very good, and the Baywatch reboot has to be considered one of his weakest efforts, even if it still managed to pull in $177 million globally thanks largely to a combination of name recognition, nostalgia and the marketing promising that he and co-star Zac Efron would be shirtless for the majority of the running time, which they were indeed.
The raunchy comedy holds a weak 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were evidently more receptive, having adjudged Baywatch worthy of a substantially higher 67%. Seth Gordon’s beach side romp has even managed to sneak its way into the Netflix Top 10 most-watched list as of late, and the sun-kissed comedic chemistry generated between the two leads is admittedly ideal for late night viewing. It’s not even the first time Baywatch has found a new audience on the streaming service, either, and it’s starting to feel as though it’ll be one of those titles that continuously circles around to make its presence felt.
