Channing Tatum’s $32m Action Flop Becomes a Paramount+ Hit, 17 Years Later

It’s not every day that a movie performs quite as poorly as this epic Channing Tatum bomb that dropped back in 2009. However, this absolute flop is now pulling in record numbers on Paramount+ as it fights its way to the #5 spot, according to the FlixPatrol Top 10 Streaming list. 

Fighting stars Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, and Zuley Henoa. The movie centers around a young man named Shawn (Tatum), who can barely make a living selling counterfeit goods in New York. However, con-man, Harvey Boarden (Howard) notices Shawn’s talent for street fighting and attempts to make some money off of him. The two strike up an uneasy working relationship that sees Shawn rocket to the top of the bare-knuckle fighting circuit as he takes down professional fighters left and right. But when Shawn wants out, he finds his real fight is just starting. 

Read Next

The Hallway Fight in Oldboy Changed Action Movies

Critics And Fans Alike Think This Movie Lost The Fight

Play video

Currently sitting at a 40% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, and an even more dismal 36% on the Popcornmeter, Fighting didn’t stand a chance with critics or audiences. Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews gave it 2 out of 4 stars, saying, “Montiel and his collaborators can pat themselves on the back for elevating empty material just a bit, but this is disposable cinema, designed to hit and run after an opening weekend.” Anthony Quinn of The Independent adds, “The brawls have a brutal energy, and Howard’s performance is magnetic, but one gains little sense of character from the improvised dialogue or Tatum’s sub-Brando mumbling.” And finally, Grant Lauchlan of The Daily Record says, “This should be a fun ride, but it’s a kind of pointless movie that beggars belief it was made in the first place, let alone given a big screen cinema release. Go rent Rocky instead.”

General audiences were even less kind to the film, with more than a few tearing it to pieces in their reviews. “MMA suckfest. I thought there was going to be decent fighting scenes in this one, but it failed to even be as good as the B-movie Redbelt. acting was not that good, the script is trash, and I really couldn’t watch more than ten minutes or so of this movie without being bored out of my mind,” said one viewer. Another added, “It’s a problem when you sit through a movie and come away with absolutely nothing. Not joy, not sorrow. Not inspiration, not condemnation. After watching Fighting, I felt complete and total apathy. ‘Well, that sure was a movie,’ I thought, before deciding that it was a waste of my time.”

Do you plan to catch Fighting now that it’s streaming? Let us know in the comments, and then check out the ComicBook forum to see what other film news fans are talking about.