Ben Affleck must have made some deal with the acting gods in his youth, as he’s shown a rare ability to maintain an A-list Hollywood status for decades. That’s despite being hit by one career misfortune after another ⏤ Daredevil, Gigli, Justice League ⏤ and yet audiences still love him.
Case in point: a slick action-thriller from Affleck’s back catalog is shooting down the competition on Netflix, just as a movie set in a universe he used to lead — one that snubbed a cameo from him, no less — fails to swim to the top elsewhere on streaming. In other words, Benny boy got the last laugh in the end.
The ant crunches numbers on Netflix as Aquaman 2 can’t crack gold on Max
As per Flix Patrol, The ant is currently the most popular movie on Netflix in the United States. If you haven’t seen the movie from director Gavin O’Connor before, it stars Affleck as an autistic ant who secretly launders money for the most dangerous criminals in the world, and whose operation is threatened when Anna Kendrick’s character notices irregularities in the books.
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It’s fortuitous that The ant is performing so well on Netflix, as the 2016 thriller was just announced to be getting a belated sequel. Amazon Studios is working with Affleck on the follow-up, in which he’ll reprise his role as Christian Wolff alongside co-stars Jon Bernthal, J.K. Simmons (does that man never sleep?!), and Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Kendrick is too busy making A Simple Favor 2 to re the party.
It’s also kind of cathartic for Affleck fans for his movie to be sailing so high on streaming just as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom stalls at number two on Max, where it’s been for a few days now, unable to a cameo from Affleck as Bruce Wayne, but he was ultimately booted from the theatrical cut due to the ever-confusing continuity reboot that’s going on at DC right now.
Because of that, Affleck’s final outing as the Dark Knight seems doomed to be 2023’s execrable exercise in IP soup that was The Flash (the same goes for Michael Keaton and George Clooney as well, for shame). The Lost Kingdom did Affleck dirty, then, but at least he’s getting his own back on streaming. Never underestimate a Batman.
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Published: Mar 28, 2024 02:52 pm