New Gerard Butler Action Flick’s RT Score Means 70% Of His Movies Are Now Rotten

The new Gerard Butler film Kandahar has marked an unfortunate milestone for the star. The project, which opened in theaters on May 26, stars Butler as a CIA operative who goes undercover in Afghanistan. It took No. 7 at the box office this weekend, behind other new wide releases The Little Mermaid, The Machine, and About My Father, as well as holdovers Fast X, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

This weekend Kandahar debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a firmly Rotten score of 46 percent. This marks the 30th film in Butler’s career that has received a Rotten score. This is a particularly overwhelming number when taken in consideration with the fact that he only has 43 scored movies on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that about 70 percent of the titles he has starred in have been met with critical derision.

The Last Five Years Have Still Been Great for Gerard Butler

Although this Kandahar score marks a rather negative milestone, it comes during a time of career resurgence for Butler. His Rotten films have largely come in a long string in the center of his career. Although his star-making performance in The Phantom of the Opera was deemed Rotten, his starring role in Zack Snyder’s 300 earned him his third-ever Fresh score, which was followed over the next few years by better-regarded films such as RocknRolla and How to Train Your Dragon.

Kandahar unfortunately seems more in line with his disregarded action vehicles like Gamer, Law Abiding Citizen, and Geostorm. However, it is just a blip in a recent resurgence that began in the last five years. In 2018, Butler came back in full force with The Vanishing, a film that was rated 85 percent after a string of seven Rotten titles in a row.

Following that film, Butler scored additional Fresh titles with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Greenland, Copshop, and Plane. This means that, in spite of Kandahar‘s critical failure, he is in the most robust period of his career since the late 2000s. In fact, nearly 40 percent of his Fresh titles have come out in the last five years, and there could very well be even more on their way soon.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes