This action film cost $ 80 million before being buried: no one wanted to take it out, but when Netflix seized it, it was a worldwide success

A few years ago, Jackie Chan and Sylvester Stallone joined forces to make a turbo-testosteroned action film, Project X-tractionhoping each win a success at the box office sufficiently important to justify all their new physical efforts. Consequently, Unfortunately. Moreover, Stallone had finally preferred to leave the ship, possibly feeling too old, which had forced production to review all its plans.

The twist? Moreover, Stallone’s departure was actually only the first hard hit recorded on this project. Subsequently arrived the pandemic and diplomatic conflicts (Ukraine war vs Russia), which only delayed its conception, then its exit. Result ? While the film had been shot in 2018, it had not emerged until 2023. And that is an understatement that it had happened a lot in the this action film cost $ meantime.

A film with great ambitions …

First. John Cena arrived to replace Stallone in the film alongside Jackie Chan-who had then changed his name and was known as Project X. Designed as a co-production between China. the United States, it was a question of reproducing Chinese successes like Chinese successes Wolf Warrior II.

A good idea on paper, since it aimed to bring together two very powerful markets thanks to two superstars. “”It will be very special. Not only will we make a good movie. but I will also learn a lot“, Extured John Cena, whose film career was not yet as powerful as today. However, even though filming had cost $ 80 million, this project almost never landed on our screens.

… but touched by an even stronger curse

First scheduled for 2019 with a still different title (Snafu). the film had been postponed in 2020. A year struck this action film cost $ by the pandemic and all its secondary problems, such as closings in cinemas. However. if some countries still dared a few temporary bets, China – which was a very important market for this film, had only reopened in the summer of 2021.

The worst? Once their reopening is effective, Chinese interest had focused on local projects with Chinese stars. In other words. seeing an American playing the heroes in a film with Hollywood flavor was not at all to the taste of the Chinese. Conversely, on the side of the USA, this film was deemed insortable because … not Hollywood enough.

Project X-Traction saw himself criticized for not bringing together enough ingredients to allow him to become a success at the. American box office. The Chinese imprint on history was deemed too marked to satisfy the American public. In short, wanting to play on both markets, the film had finally succeeded … this action film cost $ to put them both back.

Tooles

Finally. as if that was not enough to bury the film, John Cena had indulged in a big dumpling in May 2021. While he was in full promotion of the ninth part of Fast. Furious, the actor had described Taiwan as “country”, which had done controversial in China.

And faced with local criticism. the actor had been forced to apologize, even if his comment had remained engraved in the minds of many citizens, to the point of seeing his popularity coast dropping drastically. Even Jackie Chan’s fame was not enough to compensate for this error to relaunch interest in the film.

Netflix’s new miracle

Become cursed and insortable, Project X-traction was then doomed to stay locked in a closet and never see the light of day on our screens. However. while nobody wanted to give him a chance, Netflix had finally put on his Saviper costume and made one of his usual miracles.

The streaming platform had indeed agreed to acquire the distribution rights before adding the project to its catalog from July 28, 2023. Result? Despite a score of 0 % when it was released (it now has an average score of 55 % on RT). the film had quickly met with great success with subscribers.

The film had indeed classified number one on the platform in 73 countries, including the United States (well!), Canada, Japan, Australia and many European countries such as Italy, this action film cost $ the Netherlands, France and Spain. He had even remained in the lead for two weeks and had recorded 56.8 million views worldwide during his first 28 days of exit. Even more crazy: he had ranked sixth most watched film in the world on Netflix in 2023.

Who said the happy ending was an outdated concept?