The Amateur may not have made waves at the box office, but it has clearly found its audience at home. The movie hit Disney+ just last week, and it’s already the number one movie on the streamer by a long shot. According to the analytics aggregator FlixPatrol, The Amateur got nearly twice as many views as the runner up last week, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 4: Dawn of the Vampires. It also beat recent big franchise releases including Snow White and Captain America: Brave New World. The surge clearly shows that there is an audience for this movie, even if they didn’t turn out to see it in theaters.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Amateur stars Rami Malek as as CIA cryptographer Charlie Heller, who is familiar with spy work and espionage, though he works behind a desk. When his wife is murdered, he insists on going into the field himself to bring her killers to justice, against his colleagues’ advice. In the process, his unique skills help him see through conspiracies. The movie also stars Laurence Fishburne, Julianne Nicholson, and Jon Bernthal, among others.
It’s an interesting set-up for an action-thriller, and the trailer definitely highlighted its unique elements — Charlie struggles with the ethics of his mission more than a typical spy movie protagonist, especially on a revenge quest. He also favors makeshift traps over direct confrontations, making for some striking and explosive visuals. However, critics said that in the movie itself, the all this action falls flat without the right emotional stakes behind it.
At the time of this writing, The Amateur has a 60% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, with 186 trusted critics accounted for. However, the audience score is much higher — 88% positive on the Popcornmeter, with over 2,500 verified user-submitted reviews. Many of those were posted this weekend, meaning they may come from fans who waited for the streaming premiere to watch. It’s possible that the score will continue rising now that the movie reach its target audience right at home.
Sadly, this streaming vindication may not be enough to make The Amateur profitable. The movie earned a total of $96 million at the global box office. That’s more than its $60 million production budget, but when accounting for marketing and distribution, it’s likely not enough. Viewing trends like this lead studios to take fewer risks on unknown titles, favoring big franchises and remakes whenever possible.
The Amateur is streaming now on Disney+. It’s also available to rent or purchase digitally on PVOD stores, and on Blu-ray and DVD.
Most Viewed
-
Image Courtesy of The WB Television Network -
Image Courtesy of DC Studios.
