For an actor that’s starred in a huge number of action movies dating back decades, it’s incredible to think that Mark Wahlberg has never headlined anything in the genre that’s proven popular or successful enough to spawn a multi-film franchise, with Shooter one of several notable failures.
The-two time Academy Award winner has appeared in his fair share of high-octane adventures that were designed with sequels in mind, but not a single one of them managed to land a follow-up. Comedies Ted and Daddy’s Home did get additional chapters, though, but Michael Bay’s Transformers saga was already three films deep by the time Wahlberg hopped on board.
As for Shooter? An underwhelming $91 million take at the box office on a $65 million budget meant the profit margins were hardly voluminous, so any plans to adapt more of author Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger novels were abandoned in the aftermath, even if The Sword was briefly rumored to be in development five years after the would-be opener’s 2007 bow.
The tale of a former military sniper lured back out of retirement to try and foil a plot against the president only to discover he’s become the unwitting victim of a setup has proven enduringly popular among genre aficionados for a long time now, to be fair, and that’s proven true yet again on the streaming ranks this week.
As per FlixPatrol, not only is Shooter a Top 10 hit on Prime Video in nine countries, but it’s also snaked onto the iTunes global watch-list, too. Not bad for an undercooked, all-guns-blazing thriller that could only muster a 48 percent Rotten Tomatoes score.