It doesn’t matter if it’s great, good, bad, a box office smash hit, or a disastrous dud; any historical epic worth its salt is nigh-on destined to find a brand new audience on streaming, because subscribers can’t seem to get enough of dusty battlefields and all-out conflict. For the latest piece of evidence, look no further than last year’s Kingdom 2: Far and Away.
Per FlixPatrol, the middle chapter in an entire trilogy of ancient blockbusters has refused to lay down its swords on the platform’s worldwide watch-list, making it the second consecutive installment to find fortune and glory on the market-leading platform after its predecessor did just the same not too long ago.
What makes the Kingdom triptych even more interesting is the way it came together; star Kento Yamazaki starred in a three-minute short based on the manga series of the same name, and then ended up reprising the lead role in a three whole movies that expanded the tale to suitably formidable lengths.
In a fitting full circle moment, too, the final entry – Kingdom III: Flame of Destiny – will release at the end of next week on July 28, where it’ll be looking to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors by landing itself a healthy box office total before expanding its reach to viewers around the world when it inevitably lands on Netflix.
Bulletproof genres are few and far between in the cutthroat world of streaming, but they don’t come much more ironclad than quite literally anything that takes place centuries in the past and features warring armies running headlong into hand-to-hand combat in a wide open plain.
Published: Jul 19, 2023 01:53 am