Critics gave Mark Wahlberg's By Any Means 52%, audiences 89% — it is still $15m short of its budget

Mark Wahlberg is absolutely raking it in from streaming these days, but his big-screen ventures are another story—quite literally. His new film, By Any Means, was supposed to be a return to form, but so far, it’s been more of a faceplant at the box office than any sort of glorious comeback.

By Any Means debuted with only $7.5 million, and slumped 67% in its second weekend, barely scraping up $2.4 million more.

Opening Numbers and That Nasty Drop

This historical crime thriller, directed by Elegance Bratton and released by Paramount Pictures, had a reported budget of $29 million. You need a fairly robust launch to cover that kind of spend, but instead the film stumbled out of the gate: only $7.5 million from its opening weekend in North America, according to Box Office Mojo. Week two saw the bottom fall out with a 67% drop, and a desperate $2.4 million added to the pot. So after two weekends, By Any Means has only managed about $14 million at the US box office, struggling to even cling onto the top ten by its second weekend.

The film cost $29 million to make and has earned less than half that domestically after two weekends.

Swamped by Superheroes

It’s not like Wahlberg didn’t have stiff competition. He opened against Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which frankly bulldozed everyone for six solid weeks—raking in $923 million stateside and $2.4 billion worldwide, thanks very much. On top of that, Coyote vs. Acme and The Odyssey also beat out By Any Means on its own opening weekend, which isn’t the sort of thing Wahlberg is likely to add to his LinkedIn profile.

Critical Reception: Split Down the Middle

Critics were hardly in love with this one. The Rotten Tomatoes score for By Any Means is sitting at 52% with gems like one reviewer calling it ‘a mess of a thing’ and another slamming it as ‘as crass and morally repugnant as any movie made this year’. But—and here’s the odd part—regular viewers have basically given it a big thumbs up. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a beefy 89%, and even CinemaScore audiences handed it a respectable B+ grade. File that under ‘unexpected’ for this year.

Wahlberg’s Streaming Safety Net

The real punchline, though: Wahlberg’s pocketbook stays pretty safe regardless. Thanks to Forbes, we know he’s netting around $20–25 million per streaming project. Recent efforts made direct for streaming—like Play Dirty and The Family Plan 2—haven’t had the critics throwing parades, but casual viewers keep showing up in droves on Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. No doubt, By Any Means will get another shot at life when it inevitably makes its way to streaming platforms.

Oh, and if you fancy more than just Wahlberg, the cast here includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Giancarlo Esposito, Nicole Beharie, and David Strathairn. So it’s not exactly short on talent—even if ticket buyers barely noticed.