On paper, Skyscraper had all of the potential in the world to be a knowingly ridiculous action-packed blockbuster that delivered on a premise so silly, it really should have been awesome in execution.
Dwayne Johnson, the world’s biggest and most popular movie star, headlining a $125 million high concept spectacular that came off as a cross between Die Hard and The Towering Inferno sounds like a difficult premise to turn into something boring, but that’s inexplicably what happened.
In fact, Skyscraper was only saved from box office disaster by a robust performance in China, which accounted for almost a third of the movie’s $304 million haul. It was an unqualified flop on the domestic front, though, topping out at just $68 million, a very low number of a big budget Johnson effort.
The reliance on inconsistent and unconvincing CGI severely hurt Skyscraper, as did the infuriatingly formulaic nature of almost everything that happens from the first minute to last. However, it’s always proven to be a solid performer on streaming, and that’s become true yet again after FlixPatrol revealed that Rawson Marshall Thurber’s feature has returned to the Netflix most-watched list.