The Rock’s $80M Forgotten Action Comedy Resurfaces as a Streaming Hit on Peacock 23 Years Later

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A popular early movie starring Dwayne Johnson is getting a lot of attention on Peacock. The 2003 action comedy has seen a big jump in viewers on the streaming service this week.

According to FlixPatrol, The Rundown has been among the top 10 most popular movies on Peacock in the US for the past day. Interestingly, this success comes 23 years after the film received mixed reviews and didn’t perform well in cinemas.

In the action comedy The Rundown, Dwayne Johnson stars as Beck, a hopeful chef who temporarily works as a collector for a tough loan shark named Billy Walker. When Beck decides he wants to leave that life behind, Billy gives him one last mission: find his son, Travis, who disappeared in the Amazon rainforest while searching for a valuable artifact. The film also features Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, and Rosario Dawson.

The Rundown Was The Rock’s First Leading Role After The Scorpion King

Following his role in The Mummy Returns, Dwayne Johnson starred in The Rundown two years later, and then reprised the character in the 2002 spin-off The Scorpion King. As The Rundown was only his second time leading a film, it’s not surprising many fans have overlooked it, especially considering his major film success didn’t come until nearly ten years afterward.

Dwayne Johnson eventually became a major action star. He gained wider fame playing Luke Hobbs in Fast Five (2011). Following roles in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), people started calling him “Franchise Viagra” because he consistently boosted the performance of struggling movie franchises.

As a movie fan, I’ve really enjoyed seeing Dwayne Johnson breathe new life into franchises, and Jumanji is probably his biggest success story so far. It had been 22 years since the original with Robin Williams, but Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle totally killed it at the box office – we’re talking over $962.5 million worldwide! Plus, critics actually liked it, which is always a good sign.

The movie Welcome to the Jungle is about four high school students who get sucked into the game Jumanji and transformed into their adult avatar counterparts. They must complete a dangerous mission to find a way back home. Dwayne Johnson stars as one of these avatars, alongside Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan.

Two years after Welcome to the Jungle, a follow-up film called Jumanji: The Next Level came out. It was also very successful with both critics and audiences, earning positive reviews and over $800 million around the world.

Dwayne Johnson Has 1 Final Jumanji Movie on the Way

Seven years after the previous film, Sony and Dwayne Johnson are preparing to release a final Jumanji movie. Called Jumanji: Open World, the sequel will feature the characters played by Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan finding their game avatars appearing in the real world – but in a limited ‘demo’ state. While the full plot is still a secret, this suggests the game will once again spill over into reality, potentially with even more widespread effects than before.

The Rundown is available to stream on Peacock.

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2026-05-19 23:21