More than twenty years after their work on The Manchurian Candidate, Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright recently re-teamed for Spike Lee‘s modern-day reimagining of an Akira Kurosawa classic in Highest 2 Lowest. Released in the fall of 2025, the film proved popular with audiences and critics, with many unsurprisingly praising Washington’s lead turn, with Collider’s Therese Lacson saying in her review, “Washington gives a powerful performance, his dialogue hitting a repetitive beat as he monologues across other characters, giving it an almost lyrical performance.”
With viewers never tiring of the ever-encapsulating Washington, it should come as little surprise to learn that one of his more famous recent performances is back on the streaming charts. At the time of writing, The Equalizer, based on the 1980s TV show of the same name, is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Pluto, alongside the 2018 sequel. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who had previously helped deliver Washington an Academy Award for Training Day, The Equalizer was popular enough with both critics and audiences to warrant a pair of sequels, with the most recent debuting back in 2023. A synopsis for the movie reads:
“Robert McCall (Denzel Washington), a man of mysterious origin who believes he has put the past behind him, dedicates himself to creating a quiet new life. However, when he meets Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a teenager who has been manhandled by violent Russian mobsters, he simply cannot walk away. With his set of formidable skills, McCall comes out of self-imposed retirement and emerges as an avenging angel, ready to take down anyone who brutalizes the helpless.”
Often, film trilogies follow the same pattern at the box office. They first prove popular enough to warrant a sequel, with said sequel then outperforming the first, only for success to fade for the final third entry. For The Equalizer trilogy, its box office performance proved remarkably consistent, with just over $2 million separating the global total of each. The 2014 first installment grossed $192 million at the global box office, with 2018’s The Equalizer 2 grossing $190 million, and 2023’s The Equalizer 3 earning $191 million. This impeccable consistency is illustrative of a franchise with a strong, dedicated fanbase.
The Equalizer is streaming now on Pluto. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.
Release Date
September 24, 2014
Runtime
132 Minutes
Writers
Richard Wenk, Richard Lindheim, Michael Sloan
