An Anticlimactic Action Epic Takes up Arms as a Netflix Phenomenon

As a director, Peter Berg generally makes macho movies for macho audiences without a care in the world for trying much else, and the results have been inconsistent. Looking back, though, 2007’s The Kingdom marked the end of an era for the filmmaker.

Once the dust had settled on the blockbuster $70 million action thriller, Berg dipped his toes into effects-heavy waters with the turgid Battleship and half-baked Will Smith superhero story Hancock, while his next five features all starred Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, but nobody could have known at the time that a weapons-grade box office bomb would draw a line in the sand.

Gathering Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Kyle Chandler, Danny Huston, Chris Cooper, and many more besides together for a hot-button tale that saw an elite federal agent assemble a crack team to take down a Saudi Arabian terror cell, there was enough about the project to generate plenty of interest.

However, a tepid $82 million tally at the box office and unenthusiastic reviews torpedoed The Kingdom‘s chances of success, with a formulaic narrative not enough to compensate for a smattering of standout action sequences. History has shown that big names and bigger explosions are always going to pique the curiosity of Netflix subscribers, though, something the film has taken to heart.

Per FlixPatrol, The Kingdom has come out of nowhere to end up as the eighth most-watched movie on the platform’s global charts, having bulldozed its way onto the Top 10 in no less than 24 countries. What you see is what you get from beginning to end, but that’s evidently enough.

via Universal

As a director, Peter Berg generally makes macho movies for macho audiences without a care in the world for trying much else, and the results have been inconsistent. Looking back, though, 2007’s The Kingdom marked the end of an era for the filmmaker.

Once the dust had settled on the blockbuster $70 million action thriller, Berg dipped his toes into effects-heavy waters with the turgid Battleship and half-baked Will Smith superhero story Hancock, while his next five features all starred Mark Wahlberg in the lead role, but nobody could have known at the time that a weapons-grade box office bomb would draw a line in the sand.

Gathering Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Kyle Chandler, Danny Huston, Chris Cooper, and many more besides together for a hot-button tale that saw an elite federal agent assemble a crack team to take down a Saudi Arabian terror cell, there was enough about the project to generate plenty of interest.

However, a tepid $82 million tally at the box office and unenthusiastic reviews torpedoed The Kingdom‘s chances of success, with a formulaic narrative not enough to compensate for a smattering of standout action sequences. History has shown that big names and bigger explosions are always going to pique the curiosity of Netflix subscribers, though, something the film has taken to heart.

Per FlixPatrol, The Kingdom has come out of nowhere to end up as the eighth most-watched movie on the platform’s global charts, having bulldozed its way onto the Top 10 in no less than 24 countries. What you see is what you get from beginning to end, but that’s evidently enough.