A Working Man: Jason Statham Action Film That Critics Panned Now Tops European Streaming

The action film A Working Man, starring Jason Statham, has found a new audience on the European streaming service Chili after drawing mixed responses from critics. Released in 2025, the film became the most-watched title on the platform during 18–21 September and remains in the top five to this day.

Although it did not receive universal praise, A Working Man has grossed close to $90 million worldwide—twice its production budget. That figure underscores that Statham's appeal as an action star remains strong, especially among viewers who prioritize entertainment over critical reviews. Its success on Chili, a Europe-based service, shows that mainstream action films still have a significant market on regional streaming platforms that may be little known in Indonesia.

Directed by David Ayer, who previously worked with Statham on The Beekeeper (2024), the film also involves Sylvester Stallone as one of its screenwriters. The combination creates a formula familiar to action fans: a simple character backstory paired with entertaining fight scenes. Statham plays Levon Cade, a construction worker in Chicago who gets involved in a mission to dismantle a Russian mafia operation to save his boss's daughter.

"Statham knows what he's good at and stays loyal to that genre," Polygon wrote in its review, highlighting the actor's consistency in the action lane.

For Indonesia's entertainment industry, this phenomenon reflects a shifting film distribution landscape. Regional streaming platforms such as Chili—which may not yet operate in Southeast Asia—offer an alternative for films that receive little attention in major cinemas. In Indonesia, services like Vidio, Catchplay, or Netflix also often become places where Hollywood action films find new viewers, especially when Indonesian subtitles are available. The success of A Working Man on Chili could signal local distributors to look at similar films that flopped at the box office but have streaming potential.

Moreover, with Statham's busy schedule—two films in 2026 and two more the following year, including Beekeeper 2—the action film market is expected to stay lively. Fans in Indonesia can look forward to those releases, both in cinemas and on digital platforms. The question is whether a regional distribution model like Chili's will be adopted more widely in Southeast Asia, or whether global platforms will continue to dominate. Time will tell, but for now, A Working Man proves that a film critics consider ordinary can become a champion on streaming screens.