The Beekeeper was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures on January 12, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews and became a commercial success by grossing $152.7 million worldwide against a $40 million budget.
Plot
In rural Massachusetts, Eloise Parker is a retired school teacher living a lonely life, but shares a warm friendship with Adam Clay, a quiet beekeeper living in her barn. Eloise falls for a phishing scam that bankrupts her and steals her life savings, including more than $2 million from her charity. A devastated Eloise shoots herself. Adam discovers her body and is arrested by FBI agent Verona Parker, Eloise's daughter. After being cleared and released, Adam contacts a mysterious group called the Beekeepers to track down the scammers as he wants to exact revenge for Eloise's death.
They trace it to a nearby call center run by Mickey Garnett. Adam storms the call center and burns it down. Mickey's boss Derek Danforth orders Mickey to kill Adam, who dispatches Mickey's men at the barn and amputates some of Mickey's fingers with a bandsaw. Mickey escapes and calls Derek, but is caught and dragged off a bridge by Adam, who threatens Derek over Mickey's phone.
Derek informs Wallace Westwyld, a former CIAdirector-turned-security director for Derek's tech firm Danforth Enterprises, of Adam's threat. Recognizing Adam as a former Beekeeper, Wallace alerts current CIA director Janet Harward, who dispatches Anisette, an active Beekeeper, to kill him, but Adam repels Anisette's ambush at a gas station near Springfield and burns her to death; the Beekeepers promptly declare neutrality. Wallace organizes an ex-special forces protective team led by Pettis and briefs them on the Beekeepers—an elite clandestine human intelligence organization that operates outside governmental checks and balances, tasked with protecting the United States and the global system, akin to worker policing and how beekeepers maintain bee colonies. Like worker bees, Beekeepers technically continue to work for the organization until death, but Adam considers himself retired and views his pursuit of Derek as personal.
Verona and her partner Matt Wiley, who have been investigating Adam's chaos, anticipate his next target is the Nine Star United Center in Boston, which oversees Derek's global scam call centers. FBI deputy director Jackson Prigg authorizes an FBI SWAT deployment to secure the area, but they are beat there by Pettis's team, who order them out. However, Nine Star executive Rico Anzalone's refusal to obey Pettis and evacuate the Nine Star employees causes confusion that enables Adam to incapacitate the FBI SWAT team, kill Pettis and his men, and interrogate Anzalone. Verona, Wiley and the Boston Police Department arrest Anzalone and the Nine Star employees, but Adam disarms Wiley and escapes. Investigating Nine Star, Verona and Wiley learns that Derek is the son of Jessica Danforth, former Danforth Enterprises CEO and current U.S. President, who they fear Adam will kill next, owing to the behavior of worker bees to kill their queen bee if it produces an "inferior son".
Verona, Wiley and Prigg join the Secret Service Counter Assault Team and Derek's mercenarysecurity detail, led by veteran Beekeeper-killer Lazarus, to secure a party at the Danforths' coastal mansion, where Derek believes he will be safe as Beekeepers would not harm close associates of the President. Adam sneaks in regardless and, after being spotted by Verona, fights his way through mercenaries and CAT agents to reach the Danforths in their office, killing Lazarus in a brutal knife-fight and injuring Wallace when he orders Adam to stand down. Meanwhile, Prigg confronts Derek, who admits to misusing Wallace's CIA algorithms to organize scams and rig Jessica's election by flipping the necessary swing counties in her favor. A horrified Jessica announces that she will expose Derek's crimes to the public even if it adversely affects her position, prompting an enraged Derek to shoot Prigg and take Jessica hostage just as Adam, Verona and Wiley enter the room. When Derek tries to execute Jessica, Adam shoots him, saving her life, and flees through a window. Verona gives chase and holds Adam at gunpoint, but ultimately decides to leave him. Adam retrieves his hidden scuba set at the beach and disappears into the sea.
In August 2021, it was announced that Jason Statham would star in the film for Miramax and would also serve as a producer through his company Punch Palace Productions.[2]David Ayer signed on to direct in May 2022.[3]
MGM acquired the film's distribution rights in the United States in August 2022.[5] In February 2023, Sky Cinema acquired the rights in the United Kingdom, with StudioCanal handling the U.K. theatrical release on behalf of Sky Cinema.[9] It was released by Amazon MGM Studios on January 12, 2024.[10][11]
The Beekeeper was released on VOD and digital platforms on January 30, 2024, followed by a release on DVD, Blu-ray & UHD Blu-ray on April 23, 2024.[12][13]
Reception
Box office
The Beekeeper grossed $66.2million in the United States and Canada, and $86.5million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $152.7million,[14] against a budget of "$40million or less".[15]
In the United States and Canada, The Beekeeper was released alongside Mean Girls and The Book of Clarence, and was projected to gross $17–19 million from 3,303 theaters in its opening weekend.[16] It made $6.7 million on its first day, including $2.4 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $16.6 million, finishing second behind Mean Girls.[17] The film made $8.5 million in its second weekend and $6.7 million in its third weekend, remaining in second at the box office.[18][19] It spent its first eight weeks in the Top 10 at the domestic box office.[20]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 181 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Cheerfully undemanding and enjoyably retrograde, The Beekeeper proves that when it comes to dispensing action-thriller justice, Statham hasn't lost his sting."[21]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[22] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[23]
A review in The Guardian says the non-shooting scenes are rushed and both Rashad and Driver are underused, and describes it as "a solid, low-stakes, medium-reward new year's effort".[24]Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert praised the film's various aspects, including its range of villains, but regretted: "It's a real shame that The Beekeeper isn't the righteous trash masterpiece that it keeps threatening to turn into."[25] John Nugent of Empire magazine said that Statham is "as gruffly convincing as he usually is (though it's 20 minutes before he's even allowed to kick any ass)" but called the action scenes "horribly inconsistent" and noted that "you do have to put up with quite a lot of stuff about bees".[26]
