Mark Wahlberg Disaster Movie That Led To Multiple Lawsuits Is Rapidly Climbing Streaming Charts

Mark Wahlberg loves a good cinematic disaster.

Hollywood arguably achieved peak Wahlberg in 2016 thanks to the actor's harrowing one-two punch of oil rig drama Deepwater Horizon and terrorist attack thriller Patriots Day. A military mishap set up the action in yet another Wahlberg vehicle, 2013’s Lone Survivor, based on the exploits of a real-life Navy SEAL in Afghanistan. But arguably the biggest catastrophe ever faced by Wahlberg on-screen was the end of the world as envisioned by M. Night Shyamalan in The Happening, a film that not only told of an inexplicable disaster, but was one. Then there was Wahlberg’s earlier disaster film, which rode a giant wave of hype to big box office, only to be swallowed by a maelstrom of post-release lawsuits.

A streaming hit on HBO Max 26 years after its release, Wahlberg’s The Perfect Storm made $328 million in 2000, while landing a 47% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As of July 27, 2026, the Wolfgang Petersen-directed film about a tempest-tossed fishing boat finds itself at #6 on HBO Max’s worldwide movies chart.

An all-star cast that includes George Clooney and John C. Reilly alongside Wahlberg is a big reason why the 2000 film continues to captivate streaming subscribers over two decades later, especially in South American markets Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and Central American/Caribbean territories Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Salvador, all of which see The Perfect Storm slotting in at #5.

Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, and Haiti are also consuming the disaster movie at a high rate, though not as voraciously as those other markets. All of which goes to demonstrate the universal appeal not only of stars like Clooney and Wahlberg, but stories of weather-related disaster, which easily translate across cultures.

Being based on a true story gave The Perfect Storm a much-needed credibility boost, but it also led to problems when families of the real-life fishermen depicted in the film began taking issue with the way their deceased loved-ones were shown. A first lawsuit brought by two families was shot down by the Florida State Supreme Court in 2002, while a second suit filed by several families in federal district court met a similar fate when the appeals process placed it once again before the Florida courts, who dismissed the action on First Amendment grounds.

Wahlberg’s own role in The Perfect Storm was given a ScreenRant shout-out in a 2024 article running down ten of the star’s most underrated movies. The actor, “brings a heartfelt sincerity to the role of Bobby,” the piece says, continuing, “Wahlberg’s nuanced portrayal deserves more credit for adding emotional depth to the narrative and playing a key role in the movie's success.”