The Big Picture

The Beekeeper
has been a surprise hit, attracting audiences to theaters and delivering solid box office holds.
The film has grossed $133.8 million globally and aims to reach the $150 million mark before the end of its run.
Positive reviews and audience reception have contributed to the film’s success and potential for a new franchise for Jason Statham.

Despite having debuted on digital this past weekend, director David Ayer’s surprise hit The Beekeeper, continued to attract audiences to theaters. Having played globally for over a month, the action-thriller has delivered unusually solid holds at the box office, emerging as a bona-fide hit for the filmmaker, and for star Jason Statham. The Beekeeper retained a spot in the top five of the domestic chart this weekend, as it neared a major milestone globally.

The film has grossed nearly $55 million stateside, and a hair under $80 million from overseas markets, for a combined global gross of $133.8 million. The Beekeeper would hope to leg it to the $150 million mark before the end of its run, which looks improbable but not impossible, especially when you consider just how popular it has been with audiences. The film had a relatively soft $16 million domestic debut last month but has been delivering solid holds between 48% and 21% in the past few weeks.

Interest in the film was no doubt encouraged by the positive reviews that it opened to. The Beekeeper sits at a “fresh” 70% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes and earned a strong B+ CinemaScore from opening day crowds. Collider’s Nate Richard was just as enthusiastic in his review, praising Ayer and Statham for “embracing the truly goofy and playful nature of the script” and for delivering “the right amount of silliness, violence, and grit.”

Could ‘The Beekeeper’ Start a New Franchise for Statham?

The Beekeeper’s success marks a return to form for Ayer, who was earmarked for big things following the critical and commercial appreciation that End of Watch and Fury received. But his difficult experience with the DC anti-hero movie Suicide Squad somewhat disturbed his career trajectory. Ayer hadn’t had a wide theatrical release since 2016 before The Beekeeper, having directed the Netflix misfire Bright and the little-seen crime movie The Tax Collector.

Statham, on the other hand, has had an uneven post-pandemic run. He starred in the blockbuster Meg 2: The Trench (nearly $400 million worldwide), but also fronted the already forgotten Expend4bles (around $50 million worldwide). The Beekeeper might just have scored him a brand-new franchise, with the Expendables series having expired and no Hobbs & Shaw sequel in sight. Also starring Emmy Raver-Lampman, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, Jeremy Irons, and Josh Hutcherson, The Beekeeper remains the top-grossing film of 2024. You can watch the film in theaters and at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

The Beekeeper In The Beekeeper, one man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers”.Release Date January 12, 2024

Get Tickets