Antoine Fuqua’s sci-fi action blockbuster Infinite will endure in the history books as the first major original movie to stream exclusively on Paramount+, but that’s literally the only memorable thing about it. It wouldn’t be unfair to say it could also go down as 2021’s worst big budget effort after being widely panned by critics, where it holds a meager Rotten Tomatoes score of just 15%.
Nobody’s even mentioned Infinite at all since it arrived on June 10th, such was the rapid speed at which it dropped out of the cultural conversation. However, it could be set for a return to the headlines if a new report from Deadline’s senior reporter Justin Kroll is to be believed. Taking to social media, Kroll offered that leading man and producer Mark Wahlberg is said to be furious about the studio’s decision to release his latest star vehicle straight to streaming, as you can see below.
Infinite was one of the countless studio projects affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, having originally been scheduled to hit theaters in August 2020, before being pushed back to May of this ear, and then eventually September. However, Paramount abruptly pulled it from the calendar altogether, and announced with less than five weeks notice it was now a Paramount+ exclusive.
Neither Wahlberg nor Fuqua were consulted about the decision, which stood to lose them both a substantial amount of money, even if the shockingly poor quality of Infinite may have seen it bomb at the box office anyway. Now that Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for breach of contract, it can’t be ruled out that someone like Wahlberg, who regularly appears on lists naming Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, will follow suit.
