Mark Wahlberg's 2012 Crime Thriller Is Charting a Streaming Comeback

With last week's By Any Means, Mark Wahlberg returned to the big screen during a career phase dominated by streaming movies. In recent years, Wahlberg has headlined three original films for Netflix, two each for Prime Video and Apple TV, and one for Paramount+. According to a Forbes report, he charges at least $20 million for these projects. A decade ago, however, Wahlberg was one of the most bankable action stars in the business, capable of catching audiences off-guard with movies such as The Departed and Pain & Gain. His packed 2010s began with an action thriller that is now seeing a sudden uptick in viewership after landing on Netflix.

The film was released theatrically in 2012 and was directed by Baltasar Kormákur; it was a remake of the Icelandic film Reykjavík-Rotterdam, which happens to star Kormákur. The film's plot revolves around a former smuggler who is forced to bring illicit cash into the United States from Panama. The movie also featured Kate Beckinsale, J.K. Simmons, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Caleb Landry Jones, Diego Luna, and Lukas Haas — it's the kind of stacked cast you'd see in an A-list streaming movie these days.

Mark Wahlberg's Hit Movie Is Finding an Audience At Home

Contraband is the film in question. It reportedly cost $25 million to make and finished its theatrical run just short of the coveted $100 million mark, earning $96 million overall. Reviews were mixed, and it currently holds a 50% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's consensus reads, "It's more entertaining than your average January action thriller, but that isn't enough to excuse Contraband's lack of originality and unnecessarily convoluted plot." With Wahlberg largely absent, Jason Statham has filled the January action-movie gap, and notably, Statham has yet to star in a streaming original. According to FlixPatrol, Contraband is now among the most-watched movies on the domestic Netflix chart, which is topped by The Whisper Man. Wahlberg and Kormákur are also set to reunite next year for a Netflix movie titled The Big Fix.