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Jason Statham's Critically Panned Sci-Fi Sequel Takes a Bite Out of Streaming Competition

Jason Statham looks out at the water while standing on a ship in The MegImage via Warner Bros.

By Jake Hodges Published Jan 31, 2026, 7:40 PM EST In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 2500 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Jason Statham is a man never far from the streaming charts. Whether it's alongside his most notable collaborator, director Guy Ritchie, or as part of star-studded action line-ups in the likes of the Expendables movies, Statham's place among the upper echelons of the streaming ranks has been well documented. Now, even though the film only joined the platform this month, another of his smash-hit action flicks has made its way onto the top ten of one of the world's biggest streaming platforms.

At the time of writing, Statham's Meg 2: The Trench is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Prime Video in the U.S. Directed by Ben Wheatley, the film was a follow-up to the hit 2018 shark flick The Meg, and proved much more successful with audiences than its predecessor. Despite earning a poor critical reception and registering a forgettable 27% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Meg 2 improved on a middling audience score on the platform for the first film, with a strong 72%. The audience consensus on the site reads, "Once it gets going, Meg 2: The Trench delivers most of what viewers are looking for in a creature feature." A synopsis for Meg 2 reads:

"Dive into uncharted waters with Jason Statham and global action icon Wu Jing as they lead a daring research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean. Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them into a high-stakes battle for survival. Pitted against colossal Megs and relentless environmental plunderers, our heroes must outrun, outsmart, and outswim their merciless predators in a pulse-pounding race against time."

'Meg 2' Was Also a Box Office Success

Produced on a huge reported budget of $129 million, a lot was riding on the success of this sharksploitation sequel at the box office. Although aiming more for a standard action style instead of leaning into the B-movie absurdity some desired, Meg 2 proved popular enough to triple its reported budget, earning a global total of $398 million. Split between a domestic haul of $82 million and a further $316 million from overseas markets, the sequel finished 2023 as the 19th highest-grossing movie in the world.

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Meg 2: The Trench is now streaming on Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.

Meg 2: The Trench

Like PG-13 Action Science Fiction Horror Runtime 116 minutes Director Ben Wheatley Writers Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber Producers Belle Avery, E. Bennett Walsh, Gerald R. Molen, Jason Statham, Wu Jing, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Erik Howsam, Randy Greenberg, Cate Adams, Ying Xujun