The Alan Ritchson-led sci-fi action feature “War Machine” proved a modest hit for Netflix, according to new stats from Netflix.
Dubbed “Predator” meets “American Sniper,” the film released on the service on March 6th, with the title drawing in 39.3 million views in its three-day opening weekend from March 6th-8th.
That’s solid numbers for a Netflix original, a little behind the launch of Joe Carnahan’s “The Rip” on the service in February, which drew 41.6 million views in its first three days, or the Taron Egerton-led “Carry-On,” which drew around 42 million views in 2024.
“Happy Gilmore 2” and “Back in Action” hold the biggest opening weekends for Netflix in recent times, with around 46.8 million views each. Another high-profile title, Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” drew 29.1 million.
Speaking with THR, Ritchson recently suggested people are getting tired of FX-driven films with no real stakes, and this is sort of an antidote to that:
“We’re living through a period of cinema, especially with the Marvelization of a lot of theatrical tentpole movies in which the protagonists are almost invincible; we’ve reduced the stakes to something wholly unwatchable. There’s no secret that people are sort of over watching Marvel-type movies.
Our goal is to create a protagonist who is hanging on by a thread. Can we drag somebody to the brink of death and shoot it in a way that feels real and visceral so that people can actually relate to it on a human level? People are suffering out there. Life is hard, man. By crossing the finish line at the end of the movie, we remind ourselves that we can get through another day. As fun as this movie is, there’s something deeply human that we can connect to”
The film scored mixed/slightly positive reviews from critics, with praise for its action sequences but not so much for the pro-militarism messaging in its first twenty and final ten minutes.
