Forgotten Ryan Reynolds Action Flick Is Now One of the Top Films on Netflix

10/18/2021 04:01 pm EDT

There are few stars in Hollywood as popular as Ryan Reynolds. Fans love the witty and charming actor, who has taken his superstardom to a whole new level after the release of Deadpool just five years ago. His new movies generate plenty of buzz, as do his various social media pages, and movie fans everywhere are consistently wondering when there will be new Ryan Reynolds titles to enjoy. The actor's next movie (Red Notice) may not be arriving until later this year, but one of his films from nearly a decade ago has recently added to Netflix, and fans have been flocking to watch one of the Reynolds projects they may have missed when it was first in theaters.

The movie in question is Safe House, which was first released in theaters by Universal back in 2012. Reynolds stars as a young CIA operative who is tasked with moving a dangerous criminal away from a government safe house that is being targeted. The criminal is played by none other than screen legend Denzel Washington. It's a compelling premise for an action thriller, one that has definitely been speaking to fans as of late. According to Nielsen, it has performed as one of the biggest films on Netflix.

Nielsen recently reported streaming numbers from the week of September 13th to September 19th, and Safe House was the most-watched acquired film on Netflix during that span, logging 355 million minutes streamed across the country. The only film on any streaming service to have a better performance over that period was Kate, is a Netflix original title. Kate saw 413 million minutes streamed over that week, which means that it wasn't too far ahead of Safe House's total. 2005's An Unfinished Life came in third, also on Netflix, but it was about 100 million minutes below Safe House.

Written by David Guggenheim and directed by Daniel Espinosa, Safe House was a modest success when it was released, earning average reviews from critics and making more than $208 million worldwide. Action films have known to have second lives once they're added to Netflix years after their initial release. Safe House is no different, seeing a similar performance to other films like Real Steel and The Losers.

Despite being almost 10 years old, Safe House becoming popular on Netflix speaks to the love that movie fans have for Reynolds and Washington. Any films starring one of those two arriving on Netflix are likely to cause a splash.

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