Beverly Hills Cop fans should stop throwing shade at Netflix

Eddie Murphy fans excited about Axel Foley’s return are also complaining that the new Beverly Hills Cop is launching exclusively on Netflix. Rather than moaning, they should be thanking the streamer.

There are reasons to throw shade at Netflix: for regularly raising prices, for canceling your favorite shows, for removing titles with little notice. However, the new Beverly Hills Cop should not be one of those reasons.

The fourth movie in the franchise – subtitled Axel F – is streaming from today. This fact seems to have upset some fans of the theatrical experience, who in turn have taken to Twitter/X to vent their collective spleens. 

“How the hell is the new Beverly Hills Cop film not in theaters?” writes one fan. “You got Axel, Rosewood, and Taggart together again and only limited to Netflix.”

“A Beverly Hills Cop movie deserves more than being relegated to streaming,” Tweets another.

While a third commentator says: “Netflix should be criminally charged for not releasing BeverlyHillsCop4 WIDE over the July 4th holiday. Completely UNACCEPTABLE to have MASSIVE tentpole films with ZERO legitimate theatrical release.” They end their Tweet with the hashtag: #CutTheNetflixCord.

But all that anger is aimed in the wrong direction. Paramount Pictures had 30 years to make Beverly Hills Cop IV, and failed at every turn, which is why the franchise finds itself in this situation.

That’s remarkable given the original’s success, as Beverly Hills Cop triggered a celluloid explosion some 40 years ago, the ramifications of which can still be felt today.

Eddie Murphy was already a star thanks to Saturday Night Live, Trading Places, and 48 Hrs. But playing Axel Foley sent him into the stratosphere.

Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones might have been the domestic box office champs of 1984, but Beverly Hills Cop eclipsed them globally, with a whopping gross of $234 million from a budget of just $13 million.

In the process, the film crafted an action-comedy template that’s been followed by the likes of the Lethal Weapon and Bad Boys movies, and more recently influenced the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Axel Foley returned in a 1987 sequel that grossed around 10x its budget. But then Paramount effectively destroyed its own franchise with 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III, a film that failed as both action movie and comedy. 

Paramount tried to revive the series, with Brett Ratner signing up to direct a fourth film in 2008, while Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were set to helm their own version in 2016. But neither came to fruition. 

There were also plans for a new TV series, with Brandon T. Jackon playing Axel’s son. Indeed, a pilot was even shot, replete with an Eddie Murphy cameo. But that’s as far as it went, and it left the BHC franchise very much dead until Netflix appeared with a streaming defibrillator.

In August 2022, Jerry Bruckheimer – who produced the originals – announced that Beverly Hills Cop IV was weeks away from principal photography for the streamer. Less than two years later, Axel F is now available in homes worldwide.

Would I prefer to watch the new movie with a crowd on the big-screen? As a long-time fan of the franchise, most definitely. But Netflix spent a reported $150 million on the movie, which means they can do what they like with the property.

I felt the same way about Prime Video’s Road House remake earlier this year, which is dumb fun that was made to be watched with a raucous audience on a Saturday night. 

Indeed, Doug Liman said as much when he was complaining about the film’s release model. While Reddit threads were filled with claims that Road House going direct-to-streaming means “cinema will die.”

But if the alternative is no Road House remake – or a Beverly Hills Cop that’s stuck in development hell – I’m taking the option where the movie gets made, and I get to see it for the price of my monthly subscription. For that, we should all be thanking the streamers, not berating them.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is now on Netflix. You can also take a look at the new movies releasing this month, as well as the upcoming streaming movies.