Jason Statham’s success in 2024 makes a strong case for bringing him back for another sequel to one of the earliest blockbuster action movie franchises of his career. Statham is one of the last remaining bona fide movie stars who can draw crowds out to theaters based on their star power alone. For the past two decades, Statham has been one of the most reliable action movie stars in Hollywood. His films can’t be counted on to obey the laws of physics, but they can be counted on to provide two hours of thrilling high-octane entertainment.
In the past few years, Statham has been called on to take over the Expendables and Fast & Furious franchises from their current stars. But the critical and commercial disappointment of those endeavors has proven that Statham’s best bet is to stick with his own franchises. He’s headlined such action movie franchises as the Crank, Mechanic, and Meg series, and found plenty of success in his own right. Statham’s recent win at the box office and the surprising success of one of his older films on Netflix suggest he should go back to one of his earliest franchises.
The Beekeeper’s Box Office Proves Jason Statham Is Still A Major Action Movie Star
Statham’s most recent action movie starring vehicle, The Beekeeper, has been a huge hit at the box office, having grossed more than $133 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) on a modest budget of $40 million. The Beekeeper sees an ex-mercenary springing back into action to exact revenge when his friend and landlady falls victim to a phishing scam. The Beekeeper is currently the highest-grossing movie of 2024. It surely won’t hold that record once Dune: Part Two, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes all come along, but it’s an impressive feat nonetheless.
The success of The Beekeeper has provided definitive proof that Statham is still a major action movie star with a spot on the A-list. It managed to outgross star-studded, I.P.-based fare like Argylle and Mean Girls, proving that Statham is a franchise unto himself. Unlike a lot of his peers in the action genre, Statham is still in his prime, at the height of his star power. The Beekeeper could become a franchise of its own, and in the meantime, he could return to one of his older franchises that’s crying out to be revisited.
The Transporter Movies Have Found New Life On Streaming
The success of The Beekeeper seems to have led to a resurgence in the popularity of Statham’s back catalog. His 2005 action thriller sequel Transporter 2 has managed to climb its way into the Top 10 streaming chart on Netflix. On the week of January 8 through January 14 – the week that The Beekeeper arrived in theaters and bolstered Statham’s star power – Transporter 2 made it to the no. 2 spot in Netflix’s Top 10 movies, just behind the brand-new Netflix original Lift. Transporter 2 scored a massive 5.8 million views in that week alone.
It’s clear that after watching The Beekeeper, many viewers were hungry for more Statham action, which led them to watch Transporter 2 on Netflix. Since the Transporter franchise has found a new life on streaming, and audiences clearly still respond to Statham’s Frank Martin character, it might be time for Statham to revisit the role in a new Transporter sequel. The last entry in the series – 2015’s The Transporter Refueled – made the mistake of trying to replace Statham. The producers should take another crack at Transporter 4 with the actor who made the franchise a hit in the first place.
Even Transporter’s Director Is Ready For More Jason Statham Sequels
Director Louis Leterrier, who helmed Transporter 2, has said that he’s open to returning to the franchise for another movie with Statham. Leterrier recently reunited with Statham when the former directed the latest Fast & Furious sequel, Fast X, and the latter reprised his role as Deckard Shaw. During the press tour for Fast X, Leterrier said he’d be open to making Transporter 4 with Statham. Leterrier said that working with Statham again on Fast X was “a true pleasure,” and that teaming up with him for a new Transporter movie “would be a dream.”
In the same interview, Leterrier said that very little changed about their working relationship all these years later, so they could pick up where they left off. Statham turned down the chance to appear in The Transporter Refueled due to business reasons, not creative reasons, so there’s a chance he’d be open to returning for another Transporter movie. Maybe a new Jason Statham-starring Transporter movie will come together after all, and the fan base can collectively forget that The Transporter Refueled ever happened.