He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
You can tell how serious a studio is about a certain movie by its marketing strategy. This has become more apparent in the streaming age, when the sheer volume of content makes it impossible for platforms to spend equally on creating awareness about them. And so, just like it was in the pre-streaming era, certain projects are deemed worthy of a more expensive marketing campaign, while others are left to hope for the best. Netflix began promoting the survival thriller Apex well ahead of its release on April 24, and the move appears to have paid off handsomely. Not only did the film debut at the top of the streamer’s viewership charts, but it has now emerged as one of its most-viewed movies ever.
Apex was headlined by Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, both of whom have starred in major Netflix projects before. Theron led the superhero action film The Old Guard, which was released to positive reviews in 2021. She returned to star in The Old Guard 2 last year, but the film wasn’t given the same marketing push as the original. The reason became clear once the poor reviews poured in. Egerton, on the other hand, headlined the thriller Carry-On, which emerged as one of Netflix’s most-watched movies following its release in 2024. It’s now the third-biggest Netflix original of all time, with 172 million views. The all-time list is topped by KPop Demon Hunters (325 million views), with Red Notice (203 million views) at the number two spot. These figures are based on the first 91 days of release.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Apex has accumulated nearly 80 million views so far. In its first week of release, it raked in 38 million views, and week two’s numbers increased to 40 million. *Apex *outperformed the recent animated title Swapped, and the international title 180. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the movie opened to mixed reviews. It’s now sitting at a 66% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Benefiting from astonishing Australian locations and Charlize Theron’s raw athleticism while skimping on the finer details, Apex doesn’t mark the zenith of survival thrillers but makes for a solid entry.” To enter the all-time top 10 list on Netflix, Apex needs to overtake the 138 million views posted by Millie Bobby Brown’s fantasy film Damsel.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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Baltasar Kormákur
A.J. Dix, Charlize Theron, Dawn Olmstead, Ian Bryce, Jenno Topping, Ray Angelic, Beth Kono, Peter Chernin, David Ready