Jason Statham’s action movie The Beekeeper crosses a major global box office milestone, continuing its impressive run so far in 2024. Statham’s appeal as an action star was proven again in 2023 when he appeared in a quartet of releases: Guy Ritchie’s Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre ($49 million grossed worldwide), the franchise film Fast X ($714 million), the shark sequel Meg 2: The Trench ($397 million) and the long-awaited Expendables 4 ($51 million).
Statham’s four 2023 releases may indeed have produced up-and-down results at the box office, but there’s nothing down about his first big film of 2024, as his David Ayer-directed action vehicle The Beekeeper just eclipsed $75 million worldwide to become the top movie of the year so far. The film has taken $31 million domestically after debuting at number one with $16 million, with another $45 million coming from overseas, including $9.5 million from China. The movie’s worldwide numbers now surpass Mean Girls, which is at number two with $66 million (via Collider).
Will The Beekeeper Become A Franchise For Statham (Like Taken Is For Liam Neeson)
Fast and Furious stands as Statham’s best-performing franchise with $7.3 billion grossed worldwide, but he himself is not the headliner. Statham is also not the headliner of the Expendables series, though there have been rumblings of Sylvester Stallone possibly exiting the franchise and handing off the top spot to his co-star.
There has indeed never been a big franchise that soared at the box office with Statham in the lead. The two Meg movies benefited from his presence on their way to big numbers, but those films arguably do not really revolve around Statham or his character. The actor’s other would-be franchises are The Mechanic, Crank and The Transporter, but none of those are active at present (nor do they seem likely to return).
Given its solid box office performance and strong reviews (70% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), The Beekeeper has a chance to be that true Statham-led action franchise, should the star wish to launch his own showcase series, a la Liam Neeson and his Taken films. The Beekeeper 2 is not yet confirmed to be happening, but there could very well be interest now that the first film has established itself. Statham perhaps prefers to continue blending into other people’s franchises as he’s often done, but that’s a trend he could now choose to buck.
