A Mark Wahlberg Comedy Is Doing Great On Streaming
Mark Wahlberg's 2015 comedy Daddy's Home is doing well on the streaming charts on Paramount+.
Actor Mark Wahlberg has come a long way since his days as an underwear model and young rapper. Wahlberg has appeared in a number of hit dramas like The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, but it’s his comedy chops that have fared very well on streaming platforms, including his recent stint with comedian Kevin Hart in Me Time on Netflix. One of Mark Wahlberg’s best comedies, Daddy’s Home, has been trending in the top ten for Paramount+ recently, which costars Will Ferrell with a very funny premise about a modern family dealing with stepfathers and biological parental affection.
According to FlixPatrol, a website dedicated to tracking the performance of content on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max, Daddy’s Home starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell is trending in the top ten on Paramount+ for the week of October 4 through today. The movie was released in theaters on Christmas Day 2015, and was instantly seen as a classic pairing of two comedy legends. The film did so well in theaters that a sequel costarring John Lithgow and Mel Gibson was made called Daddy’s Home 2, which was released in 2017.
Filmed in New Orleans, Daddy’s Home stars Will Ferrell as Brad Whitaker, devoted husband to Sara (Linda Cardellini) and stepfather to her children. Brad is considered to be mild-mannered and somewhat boring in comparison to Sara’s ex and biological father to her children, Dusty Mayron (Mark Wahlberg). When Dusty suddenly enters the picture, it is all out war when it comes to battling their children’s attention for which father matters most.
A classic Odd Couple premise mixed with a Modern Family twist, Daddy’s Home was a financial success for Paramount Pictures and producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay upon its release. The film eventually grossed over $242 million at the box office against a budget of $50 million, solidifying Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s careers as a great comedy duo. The financial success of Daddy’s Home was due in large part to the acting skills that Ferrell and Wahlberg display in the movie, particularly drawing upon the chemistry they first exhibited in 2010’s The Other Guys.
Even though Daddy’s Home did very well at the box office for Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, critics and audiences alike were not too keen on the film overall. Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks the movie with a 30% on its Tomatometer based on 125 critics’ reviews, as well as an Audience Score of 49% from over 25,000 ratings from users to the site. Similarly, Metacritic reflects a Metascore for Daddy’s Home of 42 based on 30 critics’ reviews, which typically denotes mixed or average reviews from the critics to the site.
Despite the negative critical reception and audience reactions to Daddy’s Home, the box office success for the film helped propel it to spawn a sequel in 2017. Starring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, and Linda Cardellini in reprisals of their roles from the first film, their characters are joined by Brad’s father Don (John Lithgow) and Dusty’s dad Kurt (Mel Gibson) when each of them come to join the family for the holidays. Prior to the events of Daddy’s Home 2, Brad and Dusty worked out their differences and were attempting to coparent their children when all of the sudden their own fathers’ presence at the holidays seeks to upend their progress.
For its part, Daddy’s Home 2 also received negative reviews from critics. The box office returns for the sequel also did not match its critical reception, considering the film went on to gross over $180 million when it was released in theaters, more than doubling its initial budget of $69 million. Daddy’s Home 2 also expanded its ensemble cast to include action star and former wrestler John Cena, who appeared in a cameo in the original Daddy’s Home, as well as a voice-over performance from Liam Neeson who played a fictionalized version of himself.
But the film that started it all, Daddy’s Home, is currently available to stream on Paramount+ and is a prime example of the comedy chops that both Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg possess. Already noted for his sketch comedy work on Saturday Night Live, Ferrell continues to demonstrate how funny he can be in recent projects like Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga alongside Rachel McAdams. Wahlberg has had quite the comedy career while simultaneously putting out great dramatic work like the recent Father Stu, as the actor was recently featured with Tom Holland in the action-adventure comedy, Uncharted.
