Dave Bautista’s Box Office Dud Roars Back as a Streaming Sensation

Dave Bautista had a rough go at the box office with his 2024 R-rated shoot-em-up The Killer's Game. Now the movie is quietly getting the last laugh on streaming, where it has suddenly started charting like crazy.

The streaming rebound

Per FlixPatrol's rankings as of February 4, 2026, The Killer's Game is spiking on HBO Max, especially across parts of Europe, and it is even showing life on Prime Video. Translation: the same film that face-planted in theaters is now finding its crowd from the couch.

• HBO Max: #1 movie in Moldova and Romania; sitting in the Top 4 in 11 more countries; average daily rank of 3.5 on that date; and globally at #10 among movies on Warner Bros.' streaming platform
• Amazon Prime Video: #3 in South Africa and #4 in the United Kingdom on February 4
• Box office vs. streaming: The theatrical run topped out at under $6 million worldwide (Box Office Mojo), which makes this streaming surge feel like a full-on course correction
• Reception split: 46% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, but a 79% Audience Score (aka the Popcornmeter) — which tracks with the current watch-at-home enthusiasm

So what is the movie, exactly?

Directed by J.J. Perry, The Killer's Game is built around a gallows-humor premise: veteran hitman Joe Flood (Dave Bautista) gets a terminal diagnosis and decides to hire someone to take him out. Naturally, the plan backfires, because contract killers start aiming at the one person he actually cares about — his ex, played by Sofia Boutella — and Joe ends up battling an assembly line of assassins to clean up his own mess.

It is a sturdy lineup of action talent around Bautista too: Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, Pom Klementieff, Marko Zaror, and Ben Kingsley all pop up, which probably explains why it is playing well once folks can click play at home.

Why the reversal?

Sometimes an R-rated genre piece just lands better on streaming than in theaters, and the numbers here back that up. Critics were lukewarm, but the audience score suggests people are vibing with what the movie actually is: a blunt-force, go-for-broke star vehicle with a pulpy hook. And now that it is easy to find on HBO Max (and trending in a few Prime Video regions), the word of mouth is finally catching up.