Baywatch, the movie version of the popular 1990s television show, didn’t impress American critics or moviegoers, but it has charmed the Germans. According to a report in Hollywood Reporter, the Dwayne Johnson starrer has raked in $16 million up until now, “one of the best showings ever for an R-rated Hollywood comedy”. The other foreign market that gave Baywatch the thumbs up is the United Kingdom (upwards of $12 million).
“Overall, Paramount’s film adaptation of the classic bikini-and-surf TV show swam past the $100 million mark at the international box office over the weekend even while getting dunked stateside with $57.6 million to date,” the report said.
According to the publication, the television show was hugely popular in Germany, and its lead actor, David Hasselhoff, also has a big following in Germany because of his singing career. “Hasselhoff’s 1985 debut album, Night Rocker, inexplicably shot to No. 1 in neighboring Austria,” Hollywood Reporter observed. “His German invasion began several years later as the Berlin Wall began to fall when he reconfigured a hit local song from the 1970s, “On the Road to the South,” as the patriotic “Looking for Freedom,” which became the No. 1 single on the West German charts for eight weeks.”
Hasselhoff has released 10 albums in Germany and made several concert and TV appearances. German fans must have been both pleased and disappointed by his minuscule appearance in the Baywatch movie.
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