Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper has been a winner for audiences. An R-rated thriller about Statham’s Adam Clay, who lives as a member of a secret organization known as the “Beekeepers”. When a woman dies after suffering from a scam, he goes on a mission to track down and eliminate the scammers. The movie was released on January 12 and is fighting for first place at the box office. It is currently sitting behind Mean Girls.
While critics are somewhat disappointed by The Beekeeper, the viewers have been enjoying it. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie sits with an audience score of 92 percent, even despite its Tomatometer score of only 67 percent. That makes it one of Statham’s most successful movies among audiences. It sits behind only Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, which both have an audience score of 93 percent. The Beekeeper has moved into a sound third place, having displaced Wrath of Man, which boasts a 90 percent score.
The Beekeeper Is A Huge Change For Statham
The Beekeeper is breaking a Rotten Tomatoes trend for Statham. Even while critics marked it as solidly mediocre with a mere 67 percent, it still scores higher than his previous movies. Expend4bles and Meg 2: The Trench both disappointed critics, having earned a mere 14 and 27 percent respectively. Fast X was also a lower score with only 56 percent. He also suffered a 51 percent score with Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre.
Statham has had some critical successes prior to The Beekeeper. Wrath of Man, The Fate of the Furious, and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw all received 67 percent scores. Furious 7 and Spy have both been certified fresh as well with respective scores of 81 percent and 95 percent. Still, the four movies that came before The Beekeeper in Statham’s filmography were all rated rotten.
While The Beekeeper may mark the beginning of the end of Statham’s negative streak, he has had breaks before. Furious 7 broke a rotten streak that began with Parker, Redemption, Homefront, The Expendables 3, and Wildcard. Still, after Furious 7 and Spy, Statham again fell short with Mechanic: Resurrection. Statham will certainly hope that The Beekeeper marks the beginning of a fresh streak on Rotten Tomatoes, but it remains to be seen.