4 Years Later, Liam Neeson’s Critically Panned Spy Movie Is a Sudden Streaming Superhit

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4 Years Later, Liam Neeson’s Critically Panned Spy Movie Is a Sudden Streaming Superhit

After more than five years, star Liam Neeson returned to box-office form with The Naked Gun remake. The slapstick comedy film was released theatrically last year, grossing over $100 million globally and earning excellent reviews. Both box-office success and critical acclaim had eluded Neeson for a worryingly long period of time, during which he starred in a string of thrillers that didn’t make much of an impression. One of those films, the spy-thriller Blacklight, recently found incredible success on the free streaming service Tubi. The movie was released in 2022, emerging as a massive critical and commercial disappointment.

According to FlixPatrol, it was among the most-watched movies on the domestic Tubi charts this week, having claimed the number one spot several days in a row. Blacklight was directed by Mark Williams, best known for co-creating the hit Netflix show Ozark with Bill Dubuque. Williams had previously worked with Neeson on the 2020 movie Honest Thief, which bombed at the box office as well. Blacklight, which featured Neeson as an FBI fixer who gets involved in a government conspiracy, made just around $15 million at the box office against a reported budget of more than $40 million. The movie holds a 12% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus pithily reads, “Turn it off.” The film’s audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, on the other hand, stands at a rather positive 82%. The aggregator’s audience consensus reads, “If you’re in the mood for a conspiracy thriller featuring Liam Neeson in action mode, Blacklight delivers.”

Liam Neeson Has Two Genre Movies Lined Up This Year

Aside from The Naked Gun, Neeson has had quite a disappointing run at the box office in the last few years, having starred in films such as Absolution, Ice Road: Vengeance, Retribution, Memory, and Marlowe. However, many of these films have done well on the PVOD marketplace. This year, he has two films lined up so far — the horror-comedy Cold Storage, written by David Koepp, and the heist film 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, produced by Seth Rogen and directed by SMILF‘s Frankie Shaw.