Mark Wahlberg’s ‘Play Dirty’ Now One of the Most-Watched Amazon Movies Ever

Academy Award-nominee and Transformers star Mark Wahlberg has once again found huge success in the action movie department, with his latest foray into the genre breaking a major streaming record. Wahlberg steps into an iconic literary role previously played by Mel Gibson and Jason Statham in Play Dirty, in which the Uncharted star portrays the professional thief, Parker.

Helmed by Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys director Shane Black, who also penned the script alongside Charles Mondry and Anthony Bagarozzi, Play Dirty is now one of the most-watched movies from Amazon MGM Studios, with the crime thriller racking up a massive 57 million views worldwide on Prime Video (via Deadline). This puts Play Dirty in the studio’s top 10, with the thriller also landing the #1 spot on Nielsen’s Movie chart debut week “with 788 million minutes streamed.”

Play Dirty is based on the “Parker” book series by Donald E. Westlake, aka Richard Stark, and finds Wahlberg in the lead as the titular professional thief. Play Dirty boasts an all-star cast that includes Rosa Salazar, Tony Shalhoub, Keegan-Michael Key, Nat Wolff, Chukwudi Iwuji and Thomas Jane, with LaKeith Stanfield starring as Grofield, a character that will be familiar to fans of the “Parker” novels. You can check out the official synopsis for Play Dirty below…

“An expert thief rolls out the biggest heist of his life in Play Dirty, an action-packed thriller from director Shane Black. Parker (Mark Wahlberg), along with Grofield (LaKeith Stanfield), Zen (Rosa Salazar) and a skilled crew, stumble onto a score that pits them against the New York mob in this gritty, clever caper.”

‘Play Dirty’ May Be a Streaming Success, but It’s No Hit With Critics

Amazon MGM Studios

While Play Dirty has clearly been a hugely popular watch for audiences everywhere, the movie has proven to be deeply divisive among both critics and audiences alike. Wahlberg’s latest foray into the world of crime thrillers now stands at a green-splattered 43% from critics, alongside an even lower 42% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. “Play Dirty marks a welcome return for writer-director Shane Black to the realm of wisecracking crime thriller, but haphazard execution makes this vehicle less of a comeback and more just low-stakes mucking around,” the critics’ consensus reads.

Following Play Dirty, Mark Wahlberg has several major projects currently in the pipeline. The actor and action star alongside Paul Walter Hauser in director Peter Farrelly’s Balls Up, as well as joining forces with Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the crime thriller By Any Means, star alongside Vera Farmiga in the sports comedy Weekend Warriors, and continue to fight to bring his Six Million Dollar Man remake, now titled The Six Billion Dollar Man, to the big (or small) screen. The popular actor has now reunited with Michelle Monaghan for action-comedy sequel The Family Plan 2, which is also now dominating streaming on Apple TV.

Release Date

October 1, 2025

Runtime

125 Minutes

Writers

Donald E. Westlake, Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi, Charles Mondry

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