The humble wartime epic has proven to be a source of fertile creative inspiration and substantial box office success over the years, but the floundering Roland Emmerich could muster neither when he took his talents to the genre for 2019’s Midway.
Whereas he was once regarded as one of the most bankable directors in the business, the Master of Disaster has been on a downward trajectory for a while now, having not helmed an unqualified commercial success since 2012, which released almost 14 years ago.
On the plus side, Midway didn’t lose anywhere near as much money as his disastrous Moonfall, but a theatrical haul of $127 million on a $100 million budget ensured that it was a million miles away from turning a profit. Even though the film was remarkably historical accurate given Emmerich’s penchant for sweeping flights of fancy, a 42 percent Rotten Tomatoes score was nothing to write a heartfelt letter home to your loved ones about.
That being said, upwards of 10,000 users on the aggregation site have deemed Midway worthy of a surprisingly robust 92 percent audience approval rating, which could offer an explanation as to why such an underwhelming and unforgettable retelling of a pivotal moment in the history of World War II has been dropping bombs on streaming.
Per FlixPatrol, Midway has resurfaced as one of the most-watched features on both iTunes and ViaPlay in the early stages of the week, so there’s definitely something to be said about scale and spectacle taking precedence over quality.