Paramount Pulls Mark Wahlberg Crime Movie From 2,800 Theaters

The theatrical market isn't what it used to be, and neither is the kind of pull that movie stars used to have. Even Tom Cruise is struggling to put butts in seats for his new film, Digger, which is tracking to deliver his weakest box-office debut in nearly two decades. On the other hand, several other stars have leveraged their big-screen popularity into streaming success. Stars such as Jason Statham and Gerard Butler may not have headlined a streaming original in their careers — difficult to believe, but true — they can be counted on to deliver movies that perform extraordinarily well on the PVOD market. Meanwhile, Mark Wahlberg rarely does theatrical films these days, having settled into the world of streaming. He diverted from the norm with a big-screen movie that has performed a lot like one of Statham and Butler's recent films.

The movie in question appears to have tapped out with around $15 million in the bank domestically, which is roughly in line with Statham's two 2026 vehicles, Shelter and Mutiny. Also in this same bracket are films such as Runner, starring Alan Ritchson, and Pressure, the World War II thriller starring Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott. Wahlberg's crime movie, also featuring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, received mixed reviews from critics and is now sitting at a 49% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the key metric that unites each of these genre movies is that they are embraced by their audience, and this, in turn, greatly impacts their post-theatrical run.

Mark Wahlberg's New Crime Drama Is Primed for PVOD Success

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Wahlberg's movie, By Any Means, holds an 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the crowd's consensus reads, "Striking a balance between humor and suspense, By Any Means features a game Mark Wahlberg as mob killer Gregory Scarpa in this gritty, based-on-true-events thriller rooted in a dark chapter of American history." Directed by Elegance Bratton, the movie debuted in around 2,900 theaters domestically in early September, and a month later, it's playing in 163 theaters nationwide. Also featuring Nicole Beharie, the film is based on real events, and will be released digitally on October 20.