After ending its theatrical run as a major box office flop, one Henry Cavill espionage movie has become a big hit with viewers on streaming.
Henry Cavill’s spy movie flop, Argylle, has found new success on streaming after its theatrical run. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, Argylle hit theaters earlier this year, telling the story of espionage novelist Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), who finds herself wrapped up in a globetrotting adventure after real-life events start to mirror those of her most recent novel. Despite featuring Cavill, Sam Rockwell, John Cena, Bryan Cranston, Dua Lipa, and others in the cast, the movie was a major box office disaster, earning only $95.5 million worldwide.
New streaming data from Realgood reveals that, after Argylle‘s poor box office performance, it’s become the second most popular title on streaming in the U.S. for the week of April 11 – 17. Check out the full top 10 chart below, which takes into account over 20 million individual viewing decisions:
Argylle loses out to Fallout, Prime Video’s new critically-acclaimed video game adaptation series, but beats the likes of The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, Ripley, Shōgun, Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a Fall, Sugar, and A Gentleman in Moscow.
Argylle’s Theatrical Failure Explained
Why Matthew Vaughn’s Latest Movie Failed To Connect
Vaughn’s career has always been a bit of a mixed bag critically, but the Argylle critics’ reviews were particularly scathing. Critics took issue with a plot that was over-reliant on twists, ultimately resulting in a confusing and convoluted story that ends up feeling relatively hollow. The Argylle runtime, too, was a common complaint. Even the action, normally a highlight of Vaughn’s films, isn’t as strong as his past efforts.
These flaws ultimately earned Argylle a lackluster 33% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest of Vaughn’s directorial career. The audience score is higher at 72%, suggesting that general audiences tended to enjoy the film more, but this evidently didn’t result in a higher turnout at the theater. With the Argylle budget estimated to be about $200 million, the breakeven point for the film could be as high as $500 million, illuminating just how much of a failure the movie was.
The movie’s poor performance probably dashes Vaughn’s hopes for his planned Argylle 2 and Kingsman franchise crossover, but it doesn’t seem to have harmed the director’s other planned projects. Vaughn has confirmed, for example, that his announced Kingsman 3 is still moving forward. While Argylle may have been a disaster in theaters, the latest streaming chart has affirmed that audiences are now finding the film on Apple TV Plus.