With eight weeks of 2024 already gone, the highest-grossing film of the year around the world so far is an action thriller starring Jason Statham.
The Beekeeper sits at the top of the 2024 box office chart so far, with a total worldwide figure of $150 million (£118 million). That puts it comfortably ahead of Sony’s Madame Web and Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle, which sit on $77 million and $86 million, respectively.
Statham stars in the film as Adam Clay, a former beekeeper who sets out for revenge after a retired schoolteacher takes her own life after losing her charity’s funds to a phishing scam. Josh Hutcherson, Emmy Raver-Lampman and Jeremy Irons also feature in the film.
The film is directed by David Ayer, the writer of Training Day who has previously directed films including End of Watch and Suicide Squad. Kurt Wimmer, who served as a writer on Salt, The Thomas Crown Affair and Expend4bles, wrote the screenplay.
Reviews of the film have been generally positive, with the film sitting on a 71 per cent rating on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus reads: “Cheerfully undemanding and enjoyably retrograde, The Beekeeper proves that when it comes to dispensing action-thriller justice, Statham hasn’t lost his sting.”
Ayer has also spoken about the possibility of a sequel to The Beekeeper, which now must be considered a serious possibility. “We cracked the door a little bit into the Beekeeper world, and I would love to learn more about them,” he said in an interview.
“It’s just an amazing mythology,” he continued. “There’s so much room to explore.”
Currently second in the box office chart for the year is the biopic Bob Marley: One Love, on $120 million, with the musical version of Mean Girls in third on $103 million.
Madame Web languishes in fifth place, after registering one of the weakest box office opening weeks of all time for a film based on a Marvel character.