Apple TV's 'Matchbox: The Movie' tops streaming charts despite poor reviews

Centre · 2'Matchbox: The Movie', an action film starring John Cena, reached number one on Apple TV's domestic and global leaderboards after it debuted directly on streaming. 1 2 Centre · 1According to FlixPatrol, cited by Collider, it outperformed holdover Apple TV titles such as F1, Mayday and The Gorge. 1 Centre · 2Sam Hargrave, who made Extraction and Extraction 2 for Netflix, directed the film from a script by David Coggeshall. The cast also includes Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Teyonah Parris and Arturo Castro, with Corey Stoll as a CIA operative. 1 2

Centre · 2Cena plays a secret agent framed for stealing a nuclear weapon. He teams up with childhood friends to retrieve it from the real thieves. /Film adds that the friends are drugged at a bar and wake up on a cargo plane. 1 2 Centre · 2Reviews were poor. The film sits at 25% on Rotten Tomatoes according to Collider and 24% according to /Film. Collider's Shawn Van Horn called it "a dull Fast & Furious knock-off with lots of action yet little reason to exist". /Film called it generic and said it works as a feature-length commercial for a toy brand. 1 2 Centre · 2The film is Mattel Studios' project, made after the success of Barbie in 2023, and Collider describes it as Skydance's first release since its takeover of Warner Bros. Both outlets contrast it with this year's Masters of the Universe, which /Film says grossed $114 million worldwide against a $200 million budget. 1 2

Centre · 2/Film suggests Skydance and Mattel will be pleased with the result. It says it is unclear what the performance means for Mattel's planned Barney film with Ayo Edebiri and Hot Wheels film with Jon M. Chu. Collider notes that Apple releases few original films, so its rankings tend to be less dynamic, and that Matchbox will next face the awards contender Tenzing. 2 1