Bruce Willis is no stranger to starring in thrillers. After starring inDie Hard(1988), Willis ascended to action hero royalty, reprisinghis role as cop John McClanein four sequels of varying quality, the most recent of which,A Good Day to Die Hard, sent the franchise out with a whimper in 2013. Willis appeared in a handful of well-received movies throughout the 2010s, includingRed(2010),Moonrise Kingdom(2012), andLooper(2012), butthe last decade or so of his career was mostly dominated by critically-panned, direct-to-VOD action movies.
Though Willis retired from acting in 2022 after being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, Megan Fox remains active in the world of Hollywood. Fox rocketed to fame due to her role as Mikaela inTransformersin 2007, a role she reprised in that film’s 2009 sequel, subtitledRevenge of the Fallen. Since then, Fox has continued to appear regularly on-screen, including in multiple episodes ofNew Girl, butmany of her movies have come and gone with little fanfare, including thedisastrousThe Expendables 4(2023).
Midnight In The Switchgrass Becomes A Netflix Global Hit
The Bruce Willis & Megan Fox Movie Beats Some Popular Titles
Willis and Fox’s 2021 thriller,Midnight in the Switchgrass, has become a global success on Netflix. Directed by Randall Emmett with a script from Alan Horsnail, the film follows FBI Agent Karl Helter (Willis) and his partner, Rebecca Lombardo (Fox), as they team up with local cop Byron Crawford (Emile Hirsch) to catch the “Truck Stop Killer” in Florida.Midnight in the Switchgrassreviewswere scathing from critics and the film, which was released in limited theaters and on video-on-demand at the same time, grossed only $97,518 at the box office.
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Despite its lackluster reception,Midnight in the Switchgrassnow ranks as the seventh most popular movie onNetflixglobally for the week of March 3 – 9, according to data from the streamer. The film, which ranks third in the U.S., clocked an impressive 7.5 million hours viewed and 4.5 million views in total, beating titles likeDespicable Me 3(2017),Minions(2015), andThe Boss Baby(2017). The U.S. is currently the only country in which the film has made the top 10. Check out the full global top 10 chart below:
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Midnight in the Switchgrass
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What Midnight In The Switchgrass' Viewership Means For The Movie
Midnight in the Switchgrasswas widely panned for telling a familiar story with few thrills or surprises. Considering the film has only an 8% onRotten Tomatoesand a 20% Popcornmeter score, it’s certainly not positive reviews or word-of-mouth that’s driving its success on Netflix. Instead,the movie’s strong viewership speaks to Willis' enduring popularity as a movie star, and it’s likely that his face and Fox’s on the movie’s Netflix tile is enough to get viewers to click on it.
Midnight in the Switchgrassmarks another success for Fox afterSubserviencealso became a viewership win on Netflix.
It’s also notable thatMidnight in the Switchgrass’s global success is due seemingly entirely to its viewership performance in the U.S. Willis and Fox, it seems, are actors who appeal primarily to American audiences, plus the story and setting are distinctly American. Considering that most viewers seem to walk away fromMidnight in the Switchgrassunsatisfied, the film could be unlikely to show up on the global chart again next week. Ranking third in the U.S., however, could signify continued success in North America in the weeks to come.
