Bruce Willis is no stranger to starring in thrillers. After starring in Die Hard (1988), Willis ascended to action hero royalty, reprising his role as cop John McClane in 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, including Red (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and Looper (2012), but the 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 in Transformers in 2007, a role she reprised in that film’s 2009 sequel, subтιтled Revenge of the Fallen. Since then, Fox has continued to appear regularly on-screen, including in multiple episodes of New Girl, but many of her movies have come and gone with little fanfare, including the disastrous The Expendables 4 (2023).

Midnight In The Switchgrᴀss Becomes A Netflix Global Hit

The Bruce Willis & Megan Fox Movie Beats Some Popular тιтles

Willis and Fox’s 2021 thriller, Midnight in the Switchgrᴀss

, 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 Switchgrᴀss reviews were 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.

Despite its lackluster reception, Midnight in the Switchgrᴀss now ranks as the seventh most popular movie on Netflix globally 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 тιтles like Despicable Me 3 (2017), Minions (2015), and The 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:

What Midnight In The Switchgrᴀss’ Viewership Means For The Movie

Why Bad Reviews Didn’t Stop Its Netflix Success

Midnight in the Switchgrᴀss was widely panned for telling a familiar story with few thrills or surprises. Considering the film has only an 8% on Rotten Tomatoes and 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.

It’s also notable that Midnight in the Switchgrᴀss‘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 from Midnight in the Switchgrᴀss unsatisfied, 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.

Source: Netflix