You may not know, but Jason Statham, one of Hollywood’s most popular action stars, has been in Movies for a long time now! He's well known for his cool, sometimes tough, but definitely memorable character. He's had such a fantastic career as a leading man that some movies really deserve to be given another look! However, one franchise may have wasted some of Statham's potential!
An Action Hero Through The Years:
A super tough man to start with! It might be shocking to hear that before Statham made a name for himself he took a wide variety of jobs before he truly became famous for action-packed adventures! Statham appeared in some crazy productions to start with!
- Statham worked at a market stall
- He was a music video extra
What really gave his career a major boost! Was a film directed by the awesome Guy Ritchie, called "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," and you can bet that helped push him toward acting and, more importantly, action films. While some might argue he might be typecast as a true action hero in Hollywood, it looks like Statham is pretty comfortable with playing tough, iconic, roles on the big screen and bringing action heroes to life!
Box Office Franchises
The action genre loves Statham, which has helped catapult his career forward and even led to tons of fan favorite films. And you've likely seen these films as well. He’s starred in tons of amazing and highly successful film franchises, too.
"Fast & Furious" is an absolute franchise that everyone is following!
"Fast & Furious" really put Statham onto the map of some of the most iconic and well-known film series.
Statham’s Franchises:
Fans and movie lovers everywhere want to see him act!
Statham has found great success throughout his career with an impressive number of franchises that always seem to deliver, whether they are a solo hit or a movie with many huge actors.
- Statham has made movies for the "The Transporter" series for almost 10 years with 4 different installments and it has grossed close to $315.5 Million!
- He appeared in two "Crank" movies and raked in a staggering $79.4 Million!
- Statham has been a part of four films in the "The Expendables", series with his friend, Sylvester Stallone! Together these films managed to make $840 Million! It was an absolutely epic series.
- He's appeared in two "The Mechanic", films and the money it raked in was over $202 Million!
- He's had over 10 films in the Fast & Furious series, which, according to "The Numbers" made a mind-blowing $7.3 Billion.
- The final major franchise he's a part of, the "Meg" franchise, only had two films but they made close to a billion with a total of $921.5 Million
An Unforgettable Franchise
It seems there are plenty more franchises to come for Statham, he has so much to give to the movie world.
It turns out though, not all of the films are super impressive! And a good friend, Sylvester Stallone helped him with one series, one that may not have been his biggest success in Hollywood. "The Expendables,"
- Even with some really major talent, Stallone really wanted this group of actors to come together for these high-action, high-powered series that have truly iconic actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis.
- The initial couple of installments did OK but by 2014 it became evident that the series was fading, especially in box office sales!
But here comes "The Expendables 4". Released in 2023 and it might be one of the most significant flops in Statham's history! It only generated a meager $51 Million but the real punch was it had a production cost of $100 Million!
Fans felt like there was a major difference as well, as a ton of criticism went towards its script, acting, and CGI, it was very poor compared to what was released prior. While the prior "The Expendables" movies brought great box office gains, "The Expendables 4" was the first film in his entire career to fail so tremendously.
Statham’s Most Recent Flops and His Big Success:
Not everything went downhill for Statham.
His acting was strong throughout 2023 as he worked on 4 different films. "Fast X" was a huge hit! Fans might have been mixed but the box office loved it and even "Meg 2: The Trench" brought a return for the film series that people love. Guy Richie's film "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre", a big hit, and it almost came close to generating its full budget.
What did seem to really show up! Was one big surprise.
Fans might think this series was going to end poorly but a film called "The Beekeeper" brought in over $152 Million. A huge amount to make such a strong impression!
The Expendables: A Chance Missed
While Statham and Stallone both brought big things to the "The Expendables" franchise, its story did struggle to keep everyone entertained and its audience in suspense. That might be why the films seemed to bounce back and forth. A film series featuring huge Hollywood stars it didn't always bring the audience's hopes and dreams into reality.
What really stands out was the fact that a lot of its fans were expecting a series to follow! While they had this big collection of talent that people truly adore, the lack of solid writing made the show a lot less powerful. Maybe Statham's own success might have shown those in charge of "The Expendables", that they needed to focus on making more standalone films, where the story was compelling!
The whole experience makes you think, too. If you enjoyed seeing all these legendary stars together, just maybe "The Expendables: A Christmas Story" could have been the real key to give Statham's success the big boost it was looking for!
All in all, it’s clear that Statham can take on those roles that fans really love and there’s plenty more to be expected from this amazing, cool, charismatic action star! With "Fast X", and "Meg 2: The Trench" under his belt. Statham can rest assured his star isn't fading and has a solid spot for decades to come!
