Henry Cavill's Argylle Tops All the Netflix Hits on Streaming Chart, Beaten Only by Fallout

Summary

• On April 12, 2024, Argyle, starring Henry Cavill, was added to the Apple TV+ library.
• The movie proved to be a box office fail but is now in second place on the overall streaming chart.
• The movie is much more suited to the streaming format than the theatrical one.

Over the past few months, Netflix has been busy treating its audience to new big-budget projects, from the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Guy Ritchie 's The Gentlemen to the much-hyped 3 Body Problem and Ripley with Andrew Scott. But as high-profile as Netflix's premieres are, they seem to pale in comparison to what competing streaming services are offering.

According to numerous data and statistics, a large number of American households have recently preferred platforms such as Hulu and Max, thanks to the regular addition of acclaimed full-length new releases, or Prime Video, especially thanks to the recent hit Fallout.

In such a context, it is particularly surprising that among all the movies and TV series on numerous streaming services, one of the leaders is the movie directed by Matthew Vaughn, Argylle, released earlier this year. Although the movie had a lot of hype even before its release thanks to the participation of Henry Cavill, the release turned out to be an absolute commercial failure. Critics also had a negative opinion of Argylle, but it's rare that the taste of professional reviewers coincides with that of the public.

And so the recent addition of Argyle to Apple TV+ proved to be quite a big deal, and now its only competitor in terms of streaming popularity is not Netflix movies and series at all, but the aforementioned Prime Video's Fallout.

Argylle's Commercial Failure at the Box Office

Prior to its release, Argyle had as much hype as any of the aforementioned Neftlix projects. After all, it was directed and co-produced by Matthew Vaughn, a longtime collaborator of Guy Ritchie and the creator of the Kingsman franchise. The screenplay was written by Jason Fuchs, whose work has grossed nearly $2 billion at the worldwide box office. The cinematographer is George Richmond, who worked on Kingsman, the editor is Lee Smith, who worked with Christopher Nolan, and the composer is the famous Lorne Balfe, a student of Hans Zimmer.

And that's not to mention the all-star cast, which, in addition to Cavill, includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson.

Unfortunately, despite the high-profile faces involved in the project, Argylle was an absolute commercial failure, grossing only $95-96 million worldwide against a staggering $200 million budget (and that's not counting the $80 million Apple and Universal invested in marketing).

The Streaming Success of Matthew Vaughn's Film

The film was criticized primarily for a convoluted and uninvolving story full of misplaced plot twists. As a result, the critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes was a measly 33%. Audiences, however, were much warmer to the movie with a score of 72%. This is evidenced by the film's success in streaming formats, as it was added to Apple TV+ on April 12, 2024, making Argyle one of the leaders, surpassing any Netflix series.

According to Reelgood, it was the second most streamed movie and TV series between April 11 and April 17, behind only Fallout, but ahead of the far more critically acclaimed The Zone of Interest, Poor Things, Ripley, Shōgun, Oppenheimer, Anatomy of a Fall, Sugar, and A Gentleman in Moscow.

That's not to say that Apple's era of streaming leadership has begun. The reason for this statistic is the hasty addition of a much-hyped movie to the service just a few months after its release. At the time of its theatrical run, many commented that they weren't excited enough to see the movie in theaters.

From the looks of it, however, it seemed like the perfect popcorn project for the streaming format.

Source: Reelgood.