All this to say, no person holds this film in notably excessive regard, or so it appears. It was the final straw in M. Night time Shyamalan’s blockbuster profession earlier than he managed to rebound with the low-budget thriller “The Go to” in 2015. For Sony, it was a trainwreck, taking in solely $251 million worldwide in opposition to an enormous $130 million funds. There was no saving grace for the film on the time and, even when factoring in DVD gross sales, cable rights, and different ancillary income streams, the studio undoubtedly by no means recouped the funding.
The primary factor is that this film is under no circumstances a hit by anybody’s rational definition. The director, stars, studio, critics, and audiences on the time all rejected it. So it is downright fascinating that it managed to ascend the Netflix charts with little-to-no promotion. It is not as if Netflix or Sony had been boasting that “After Earth” is now streaming. Viewers merely noticed the tile when scrolling by way of their app and, en masse, opted to observe this above 1000’s of different attainable titles. That is spectacular, bizarre, and fairly telling.
For one, it strongly signifies that Will Smith’s star energy is powerful with normal viewers, even within the aftermath of the “slap” on the Oscars final 12 months. It additionally speaks volumes about the truth that viewers favor familiarity on main streaming companies, particularly with films that performed in theaters first earlier than making their technique to streaming. Even when these films had been flops, one thing boosted their profile on the time and, not directly, helped to depart a long-lasting impression on the general public consciousness. The identical typically cannot be mentioned for direct-to-streaming releases, that are extra right here at present, gone tomorrow conditions.