Last week, movie fans were surprised when a brand-new Liam Neeson sequel they’d never heard of appeared on Netflix and were surprised again when the film began dominating the streaming platform, skyrocketing its way to the top of the charts to become its biggest movie. But while Ice Road: Vengeance has slipped a little bit in its Netflix dominance, the sequel to 2021’s The Ice Road is now a bona fide streaming hit, thanks to its performance on another streaming platform.
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Ice Road: Vengeance is also streaming on Prime Video and the film is doing impressive numbers there, too. The film is currently the top-streamed movie on the platform, easily outperforming the number two movie, Madame Web. What’s interesting about this is that while Ice Road: Vengeance is performing this well internationally and, in the US, viewers have to pay to rent or purchase the film. That means that, when you look at both the Netflix charts and Prime Video’s rankings, Ice Road: Vengeance is a global hit, and one that people have to actively seek out.
Ice Road: Vengeance’s Success Proves Poor Reviews Don’t Always Mean Poor Performance
Ice Road: Vengeance’s surprise streaming success proves that sometimes, critics are just wrong about a film — at least in terms of how it will end up performing with viewers. The film currently has a dismal 14% critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes and a pretty low audience score as well. However, the lack of critical praise hasn’t impacted the film’s popularity as viewers are still flocking to The Ice Road sequel to follow Mike (Neeson) as he makes his way up Mount Everest to spread his brother’s ashes and finds himself fighting off mercenaries on his journey. In fact, the film is even still popular on Netflix, where it sits as the number three film globally on Tuesday.
As for why Ice Road: Vengeance is proving to be so popular despite poor critical performance, that might be a product of the success of another Neeson film: The Naked Gun. That film ended up being a solid box office hit, grossing $102 million worldwide against a $42 million budget. It also performed well critically with largely positive reviews. Audiences also had praise for the film, particular with its humor and approach to nostalgia. The film proved to be so popular that there’s already talk of a potential sequel. Given the success of Naked Gun, it’s not a surprise that audiences may be seeking more of Neeson’s work — including his action thrillers like Ice Road: Vengeance.
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