Gemini Man continues to dominate Netflix’s charts with its fourth week in the Top 10. Directed by Ang Lee, the sci-fi action film follows Will Smith as an aging assassin who is targeted by a younger clone of himself. Starring Smith in a dual role, the cast also includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, and Benedict Wong. Despite its Academy Award-winning director and star, Gemini Man was decimated by critics and bombed at the box office in 2019.
Four years after the film flopped in theaters, Gemini Man is continuing to dominate the Netflix charts with its fourth straight week in the Global Top 10. For the past week of October 9 to October 15, Gemini Man was watched for 10.3 million hours and received 5.3 million total views, ranking third behind only the new Netflix originals Reptile and Fair Play. Right now, it’s the longest any film has been in Netflix’s Top 10.
Why Gemini Man Bombed At The Box Office
Gemini Man dominating Netflix’s Top 10 for four straight weeks is surprising considering it was widely regarded as a failure upon its original release in 2019. The movie made $174 million against a $138 million budget, which resulted in Paramount losing an estimated $111 million and Gemini Man receiving the label of a box office bomb. Though there was some praise for Smith’s performance and Lee’s impressive visuals, Gemini Man reviews largely panned its disappointingly lackluster plot and failure to grapple with the complicated issue of cloning. This critical response resulted in a 26 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite featuring some impressive visuals, Gemini Man‘s de-aging of Smith was also criticized and deemed one of the worst examples of the technology. Another point of contention was the film’s extra-high frame rate of 120 fps, which was criticized for looking garish, as opposed to the standard 24 fps. In spite of everything, Gemini Man does have an 83 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting that many who saw the movie liked it. Fast-forward four years, it’s dominated the Netflix charts for four weeks, suggesting audiences are still finding something to like about Gemini Man.
