Audiences Aren’t Willing to Board Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Flight Risk’ According to CinemaScore

Even without a calendar, you can probably tell that you’re in the thick of January when a film like Flight Risk rolls into theaters. Perhaps the January-est of January titles, the action-thriller debuted to muted box office response and rancid reviews on Friday, though Flight Risk is aiming to debut at the top of the domestic box office charts, marking Lionsgate’s second number one finish of the year already. But audiences and critics appear to have no patience for the film, directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg.

The movie earned a concerning C CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which doesn’t bode well for its future. For context, last year’s Kraven the Hunter was given the exact same grade by audiences, and we all know how that turned out. The superhero movie wasn’t able to hit the $25 million mark domestically. Even Lionsgate’s other action offering of 2025, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, managed to earn a B+ CinemaScore, as did last year’s January hit, Jason Statham‘s The Beekeeper. Directed by David Ayer, The Beekeeper went on to earn over $150 million globally.

Flight Risk opened to poor reviews, and currently holds a “rotten” 21% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. In his review, Collider’s Jeff Ewing wrote that “the narrative works a little better than it could (given the film’s threadbare plot and limited setting), but the film’s logic and performances don’t quite carry it through.” Wahlberg plays a pilot tasked with transporting a U.S. Marshal and a criminal across the Alaskan wilderness, only to reveal himself as an undercover assassin charged with killing the transported fugitive. Wahlberg hasn’t starred in a bona fide box office blockbuster since 2022’s Uncharted, which made over $400 million worldwide. In the last couple of years, he headlined the modest hits Father Stu and Arthur the King. He has also starred in a string of streaming movies, such as Infinite, Me Time, The Family Plan, and The Union. None of these films received positive reviews either.

This is Gibson’s Second Un-Cancellation in a Decade

Gibson, on the other hand, hasn’t directed a film in nearly a decade. His last release was the anti-war drama Hacksaw Ridge, starring Andrew Garfield as a conscientious objector. While the film earned rave reviews and several Oscar nominations, here was controversy surrounding that film’s release, with many accusing the industry of seemingly forgiving Gibson’s past misdeeds, which include, but aren’t limited to, anti-Semitic comments. But the downgrade from directing Oscar-friendly epics to a poorly received B-movie is quite noticeable.

Also starring Michelle Dockery and Topher Grace, Flight Risk is playing in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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