During the height of the pandemic, Paramount Plus saw an opportunity and took it in an effort to immediately establish itself as a new power player in the streaming wars. It was a sound idea in practice, but the fact Infinite was irredeemably awful didn’t do much to generate new subscribers.
Boasting a proven big budget pairing in director Antoine Fuqua and star Mark Wahlberg, the expensive original sci-fi actioner was intended for a theatrical release before the studio decided to pull it from the big screen and position it as one of its platform’s marquee launch titles, with Infinite premiering as its second-ever original feature and first effects-heavy A-list extravaganza.
Unfortunately, or maybe not considering that was exactly what it deserved, it quickly gained a reputation as one of the year’s worst blockbusters, fizzling out with a 17 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. In a deliciously cruel twist of irony, though, the film has since migrated over to a direct rival and ended up as one of its biggest hits on a global scale.
Per FlixPatrol, the tedious tale of Wahlberg’s blank-faced hero partnering up with a band of constantly-reincarnated mercenaries in an effort to prevent Chiwitel Ejiofor from inhaling so much scenery he destroys the world has debuted at number four on Netflix’s worldwide charts after entering the Top 10 in 49 countries.
Not content with continually being handed slam dunks on a platter from HBO, the company is more than happy to take them from even more rival platforms, too.