One day, Paramount may just give up and stop trying to turn G.I. Joe into a sustained franchise that can last for longer than one movie, but that day has yet to arrive.
In fact, there’s a live-action TV series following Lady Jaye in development at Amazon, so we’ll be getting at least one more project in the not too distant future. However, the feature film side of the property is right back at square one after Snake Eyes went down as perhaps the single biggest dud of 2021.
Henry Golding’s first foray into action hero territory was projected to need a $100 million haul from theaters in order to become profitable, which sounded perfectly achievable when The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation had both hit $300 million. Instead, it limped away from the big screen with just $40 million in the coffers.
Ironically, it also happens to be the best-reviewed of the three G.I. Joe efforts, but a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score is nothing to write home about. Golding and Andrew Koji radiate star power and natural charm, but if it wasn’t for those two, then Snake Eyes would have turned out even worse.
That being said, Robert Schwentke’s dud has turned out to be an impressive success on streaming this week. As per FlixPatrol, Snake Eyes jumped 28 places on the iTunes most-watched rankings in the space of 24 hours, so there’s clearly a decent-sized fanbase out there.
