Cameron Diaz’s First Movie In 11 Years Is Dominating Netflix

2014 wasn’t a great year for Cameron Diaz. The actor who shot to stardom when she debuted in 1994’s “The Mask” suddenly found herself at the center of three films that garnered reviews ranging from lukewarm to downright malicious with “The Other Woman,” “Sex Tape,” and “Annie.” Diaz’s best movie (at least according to Rotten Tomatoes) was long behind her at this point, and the actor disappeared from movie-making after “Annie” bowed in theaters. Now, she’s back in a movie that will surely do little to make up for the poor reviews of 2014 but will, at least, give her global exposure, assuming the Netflix viewing figures are anything to go by.

Diaz appears alongside her “Any Given Sunday” and “Annie” co-star Jamie Foxx in “Back in Action” in which the pair play former spies who settle down and start a family in the suburbs of Atlanta. As you might have guessed from the title and the feeble premise, however, the couple are quickly drawn (sigh) back into action, with Foxx and Diaz’s Matt and Emily having to escape mercenaries sent by their former boss and protect their kids in the process.

Director Seth Gordon (“Identity Thief,” “Baywatch”), told Tudum that “Back in Action” came from him contemplating the idea of “What would it be like for Jason Bourne if he had kids?” Well, finally this question that surely every Bourne fan has been asking since Matt Damon’s franchise debuted has been answered with yet another sorta okay Netflix movie that will soon wash away amid the inexorable tide of streaming “content.” Before it becomes yet another forgotten streaming effort, however, it will evidently manage to capture our increasingly diminishing collective attention span, as the whole world appears to be happily streaming Diaz’s return to movie-making.

Before Cameron Diaz disappeared from Hollywood, she was easily one of its biggest stars. While a middling Netflix action comedy might not seem like the sort of thing that would remind us of the actor’s star power, “Back In Action” is at least proving hugely popular on Netflix. The movie hit the streamer on January 17, and immediately proved to be nothing short of a sensation. According to FlixPatrol, a site that tracks streaming viewership data across the various platforms, the movie is an indisputable success for Netflix, not only topping the U.S. most-watched charts but also becoming a global hit.

Stateside, “Back in Action” debuted on the most-watched film charts the day after it arrived on the service, hitting number one on January 18, 2025, and staying there ever since. As of January 20, it’s still in the top spot and looks set to remain there for some time, becoming one of Netflix’s biggest releases of 2025 thus far. It’s the same story around the world, too, with “Back in Action” managing to repeat its chart-topping success in every other market.

As of January 20, the film is number one in 92 countries, only failing to top the charts in New Zealand, where it currently sits at number two. Even then, “Back in Action” was number one in New Zealand for its first two days on Netflix. If that’s not impressive enough, Diaz’s triumphant return has been number one every day since it hit Netflix in 88 countries around the world, suggesting it will not only be dominating the U.S. charts for some time, but that it will also likely remain in the global rankings for the foreseeable future — especially since in every country where it’s charting, it hasn’t dipped below the number two position in any of them.

You might think it unfair to belittle yet another Netflix movie when it has the star power of Cameron Diaz propelling it. Well, while I hesitate to direct your attention to Rotten Tomatoes, which maintains there are only two “perfect” war movies and that Sean Connery’s best movie is “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” that 23% score for “Back in Action” ain’t great. Rotten Tomatoes is doing little to maintain the success of the film, which also bears a lowly 4.4 out of 10 average rating. In his two-star review, The Guardian‘s Benjamin Lee wrote, “While it might prove that Diaz still possesses that same particular magic, it also shows that she should be far more discerning with how she chooses to share it.” “Back in Action” certainly seems like an odd choice for Diaz’s big return to filmmaking, but then, the audience numbers appear to suggest otherwise.

Case in point: Jack Black actually forgot he was in a Christmas movie with Diaz which recently saw a resurgence on Prime Video for Christmas 2024. While “The Holiday” didn’t fare all that much better critically than “Back in Action,” it has a certain charm of its own, mostly because of Diaz’s own inherent charisma, which is on full display in the romantic comedy. As such, the revival of “The Holiday” in 2024 was arguably a better return for the actor than “Back in Action,” which, with its meta title, seems like exactly the kind of thing Netflix’s ungodly AI algorithms would churn out after crunching the viewership numbers.