box office

Baywatch Is Doing Great in Germany, Where They Still Love David Hasselhoff

David Hasselhoff. Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for Paramount

The film Baywatch, which stars, in order of importance, muscles, the Rock, and Zac Efron, didn’t light up the U.S. box office, earning just $57.6 million so far, but it’s done surprisingly well overseas, racking up more than $101 million outside the U.S., because international audiences love muscles, the Rock, Zac Efron, and most important, David Hasselhoff. The Hollywood Reporter points out that the film has surpassed box-office expectations in Germany, where Hasselhoff, who makes a brief cameo in the film, is known both as the star of the Baywatch series and as a singer (he famously performed his anthem “Looking for Freedom†at the Berlin Wall in 1989, weeks before it fell). So far, the film has made $16 million in Germany alone, the most of any foreign market, earning German citizens a shout-out from the the Rock’s own Instagram account. Now all the Rock needs to do to cement his status as a German hero is star in an adaptation of Starlight Express.

Baywatch Is a German Box-Office Hit: Thank David Hasselhoff