Channing Tatum flop hits the Netflix top 10 chart

❘ Published: 2023-09-11T10:56:51

Universal Pictures

A forgotten movie starring Channing Tatum was a critical and commercial flop when it dropped back in 2011 – but it’s not enjoying a new life over on Netflix, having reached the top 10 chart.

We’ve seen this situation time and again: TV and movies fail to draw in audiences, and it could be for a myriad of reasons, whether the Rotten Tomatoes score dampened interest, it didn’t hit the right network, or it was sunk by stronger competition. Then it hits Netflix and becomes the talk of the town.

A recent example is Suits, the 2011 legal drama. Though it ran for nine seasons, it wasn’t ever part of the zeitgeist, but this all changed when it arrived on the platform in summer, where it’s gone on to rack up billions of viewed minutes and broken all kinds of streaming records.

In the movie world, we’ve seen this happen with The Snowman, The Call, and Black Adam, to name a few. And now the same situation is unfolding with a 2011 Channing Tatum movie, which is climbing Netflix Top 10 movies chart since dropping on the platform at the start of the month.

Channing Tatum flop hits the Netflix Top 10 chart

At the time of writing, The Eagle, a 2011 movie starring Channing Tatum, is number seven in Netflix’s Top 10 movie chart – despite earning a 29% Tomatometer score and a 41% audience rating.

Check out the trailer below:

Alongside its ‘Rotten’ score, the film only earned $19.5 million in the US and Canadian box office, and $18.5 million in other territories, racking up a $38 million against its $25 million production budget.

This is a disappointing outcome considering there’s marketing budgets to consider too, with The Eagle hitting IMDb’s list of 2011 movie flops.

Nonetheless, it’s going down a treat with Netflix subscribers. There are a number of reasons why this could be the case, but one of the biggest tends to be a big name leading the cast. In this case, it’s Tatum and his co-star Jamie Bell.

What’s more, the marketing may not have reached the right viewership, and the economy at that time could have played a part, as audiences might not have felt compelled enough to buy tickets.

As for what the movie is about, here’s the official synopsis: “Based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s million-selling novel, The Eagle is a gripping story of courage, honour and friendship in the dangerous world of Roman Britain.

“Newly arrived in Britannia on his first command, young Centurion Marcus Aquila (Tatum) heroically defends his fort against a massive Celtic attack but is so badly wounded that he is discharged from the army.

“Angry and bitter that his army career is over, Marcus chooses to risk his life on a seemingly impossible journey into the unconquered north to find the Eagle of the Ninth, the legendary golden standard lost fifteen years earlier when his father marched the Ninth Legion into the wilds of Scotland and never came back.

“As a companion, he takes his slave Esca (Bell), a Celt whose life he saved in a gladiatorial contest but who hates all things Roman. Their journey together into the wild north forges the beginnings of a precarious relationship between them.”

The Eagle has received high praise since arriving on Netflix on September 1, with one writing on Twitter: “The Eagle on Netflix is excellent!” Another said: “The Eagle is finally on Netflix.”

A third added: “The Eagle, based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth novel, is doing well on Netflix. It IS a film of a cracking story, even if the ending was changed a little from the book.”

The Eagle is available to stream on Netflix now, and you can check out more of our Netflix coverage below: