Summary

• The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon, has made it to the Netflix top 10 in the US, ranking No. 4 for the week.
• The movie faced criticism for promoting a white savior narrative and whitewashing the cast, among other issues.
• Despite making $334.9 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, The Great Wall is considered a flop in Matt Damon's career.

Matt Damon’s The Great Wall has made it onto the Netflix top 10 in the US. Released in 2016, The Great Wall is a Zhang Yimou movie about a group of European mercenaries who are imprisoned in China and are conscripted to help out a secret army that maintains and defends the Great Wall from fantastical enemies. In addition to Damon, The Great Wall features an ensemble cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Pedro Pascal, Tian Jing, Andy Lau, Zhang Hanyu, Lu Han, and Kenny Lin.

Now, Netflix has calculated their Top 10 most-watched movies in the United States for the week of April 29 through May 5. 2016's The Great Wall landed on the list at No. 4, marking its first week in the Top 10. Topping the list this week were Anyone But You (No. 1), The Judge (No. 2), and Unfrosted (No. 3), making the Damon movie the third highest-ranked movie not to be a Netflix original. The list contained a wide variety of other hit movies, including the animated films Shrek (No. 7) and Smurfs: The Lost Village (No. 8).

How Was The Great Wall Received At The Time Of Its Release?

The Movie Has Found A Second Life On Streaming

Others felt that, even though it was an American and Chinese co-production, the movie whitewashed the cast, as it made a fictionalized story with three European men in the lead roles, decentering the narrative of the Chinese cast members.

The Great Wall caused controversy upon its release in 2016. This was primarily because it seemingly promoted a white savior narrative. Others felt that, even though it was an American and Chinese co-production, the movie whitewashed the cast, as it made a fictionalized story with three European men in the lead roles, decentering the narrative of the Chinese cast members. Damon has spoken out against this criticism, noting that it is a fictional story and that he did not take a role away from any Chinese actors to play his part in the film.

Though it was a Chinese co-production, the script for The Great Wall came from the American side with credit going to Hollywood writers Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, and Tony Gilroy, from a story by Max Brooks.

In addition to its controversy, The Great Wall received largely negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 35% critic score, with a 42% audience score. It has also performed poorly on other platforms, including Metacritic, where it has a critic score of 42 out of 100 and an audience score of 5.4 out of 10, IMDb, where it has a user score of 5.9 out of 10, and Letterboxd, where it has a user score of 2.3 out of 5. This overall negativity surrounding the movie is particularly notable given that its director, Zhang Yimou, is an internationally acclaimed auteur.

Yimou's previous titles Hero and House of the Flying Daggers are both beloved works, receiving 94% and 87% Rotten Tomatoes scores, respectively. In fact, of the 23 movies that Zhang has worked on in some capacity that have received critical scores, only three of them were below the point at which a title is considered Rotten, which is 59%. The Great Wall has the second-lowest score of his entire career by a rather significant margin, landing just one point above his worst-rated movie. Below, see how The Great Wall stands among his Rotten Tomatoes Bottom 5:

Will The Great Wall's Netflix Success Turn Its Prospects Around?

The Movie Was A Flop At The Box Office.

It was eventually estimated that the movie lost roughly $75 million.

The controversy and poor reviews partially led to a rocky box office path for the movie despite the Great Wall cast being loaded with major international stars designed to appeal to both North American and Chinese audiences. Ultimately, as far as the raw numbers go, the movie performed decently, though its commercial reception most likely fell far below initial estimates when the movie was in pre-production. With a worldwide gross of $334.9 million, the movie ended up being the 27th highest-grossing movie of 2016 at the global box office and currently ranks as the ninth highest-grossing movie starring Matt Damon.

However, the movie's worldwide gross is only a fraction of the story. It may have outgrossed other major Matt Damon movies like Ocean's Thirteen and The Bourne Supremacy, but its $150 million budget limited its prospects. Because theaters keep half the ticket sales, a movie must usually earn at least twice its production budget, making its break-even point likely $300 million or more without factoring in publicity costs. It was eventually estimated that the movie lost roughly $75 million. Below, see how the movie's budget and box office compare to other Damon movies:

While the newfound U.S. Netflix success for The Great Wall may show that audiences have softened on the movie since 2016, it ultimately seems unlikely to make up for that $75 million deficit. If it continues to rank in the Top 10 in the coming weeks and climbs even higher than No. 4, the situation may change. However, for the time being, the movie can likely still be considered a flop and the chances of the franchise being picked up again for a possible sequel seem low unless the budget can be significantly lowered for the follow-up.

Click here to watch The Great Wall on Netflix

Source: Netflix