Following his breakout movie role in Bad Boys, which was released when both he and Martin Lawrence were best known as sitcom stars, it didn’t take long for the Will Smith Summer Blockbuster to become a subgenre unto itself. Indeed, in no time at all, the former Fresh Prince was the biggest and most bankable talent in Hollywood.
To illustrate why he deserved his nickname as the King of Summer, Smith is the only actor to have starred in eight films in a row that earned over $100 million domestically, all of which opened at the top of the charts, while his global appeal was cemented after he featured in eleven consecutive movies that made over $150 million overseas.
Ironically, one of his best performances and highest-grossing efforts was released in the middle of December, but that didn’t stop I Am Legend from rocketing to a global haul of over $585 million. Reviews were strong, but almost everyone can agree that after two incredibly promising acts, the final third of the story is a letdown, one that’s far too happy to deliver standard action histrionics at the expense of the post-apocalyptic character piece we’d been treated to for the first hour.
However, that hasn’t stopped I Am Legend from dominating the Netflix most-watched list since it was added to the library at the beginning of the month, and it’s been in the Top 10 almost the entire time. Clearly, Will Smith is a huge draw among subscribers and Bright definitely isn’t worth watching more than once, but luckily there’s another one of his effects-driven epics available at the push of a button to keep viewers occupied for a couple of hours.
