2026 hasn’t been too kind to Jason Statham at the box office, with Mutiny grossing approximately $30 million worldwide on a budget of roughly $40 million, and Shelter raking in only $56 million after a $50 million budget. However, Statham is sure to return to box office glory when The Beekeeper 2 lands in January 2027; the original made a whopping $126 million on a $40 million budget. Additionally, Statham has always found massive success on streaming, with underdogs including Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and A Working Man finding plenty of viewers at home. Now, a classic Statham double feature is swimming back onto streaming, and sure to take a bite out of the competition.
In 2018, Statham wet-suited up as Jonas Taylor to face off against a giant prehistoric shark in The Meg. After a submersible goes down in the Mariana Trench, Taylor must return to the scene of a previous tragedy to save the day. Along for the ride are Li Bingbing as Suyin, Rainn Wilson as Morris, and Cliff Curtis as Mac. While the creature feature earned middling reviews — 47% from critics and 44% from the audience on Rotten Tomatoes — it grossed $530 million worldwide on a budget of $175 million, earning most of its box office from international markets. It also earned enough to warrant a sequel, which has joined The Meg on HBO Max, as of November 1.
A few years later, in 2023, Statham returned to shark-infested waters for the sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, which attempted to up the ante with even bigger threats. The sequel leaned further into the campy B-movie action of the first, adding dinosaurs and an even bigger shark into the mix. Meg 2 brought Wu Jing, Page Kennedy, and director Ben Wheatley into the fold, but failed to impress critics who were lackluster on the premise to begin with. While its dismal 27% critics’ score might spell disaster for some films, this Statham vehicle saw the audience vastly disagree, awarding it a 72% on the Popcornmeter. Meg 2 knows what it is — Statham vs. giant monsters — and fans were more than happy to come along for the ride.
<ASomeone recognises me, and the temperature in the room drops without a single word being said.
<BLoudly and warmly. I arrive with my people, and we’re already laughing about something.
<CI’m the one who told everybody where to stand. I walked this room twice before anyone else arrived.
<DBy accident. I wasn’t supposed to be here, and now I’m the only one who can do anything about it.
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<It turns physical. What does your fighting actually look like?
<Choreography is character. Yours says something about you.
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<AEconomical and devastating. Trained technique, no wasted motion, finished before most people notice it started.
<BLoud, heavy and weirdly joyful. I’m not elegant, I hit like a truck, and I always have backup.
<CTo plan until the plan breaks. Then I improvise at full sprint and refuse to stop moving.
<DBadly, honestly, and with a lot of swearing. I take more damage than I deal and I still don’t go down.
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03
<Who is standing beside you when it starts?
<Some franchises are built on a team. Others are built on one person walking in alone.
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<ANobody. I have contacts, favours and people who owe me but when it begins I work alone.
<BEveryone. My people are the entire point, and I’d trade the whole mission for any one of them.
<CA small hand-picked team I trust completely, and I’d still take the worst part of the job myself.
<DA voice on the other end of a radio and a building full of people who don’t know I exist.
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<It has gone badly wrong. What keeps you upright?Act two exists to find out what you’re actually made of.
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