It shouldn’t be a surprise to discover that any Denzel Washington movie added to the Netflix library tends to draw in a decent number of viewers, when he’s remained one of the most popular actors on the planet for the best part of three decades.
In the past 20 years, the two-time Academy Award winner has seen seven of his last 22 features open in the number one spot at the domestic box office, and only three of them debuted lower than third, while seventeen of them earned at least twice their production budgets back in theaters, which is an astonishing track record of consistency.
On the streaming front, meanwhile, we’ve watched as Inside Man, Training Day and The Equalizer 2 all made their way to the high end of the Netflix Top 10 most-watched list over the last few months, so based on nothing but the obvious preferences of the platform’s subscribers, The Manchurian Candidate is equally capable of following suit.
It may not be lauded as one of Denzel Washington‘s top tier efforts, and was a commercial disappointment by his lofty standards after earning $96 million globally on an $80 million budget, but it drew solid reviews from critics. A remake of the 1962 original starring Frank Sinatra in the lead, Denzel’s Bennett Marco suffers from traumatic nightmares following him serving in the Gulf War, leading to the discovery of a wide-ranging conspiracy that’s got ties to the highest levels of government.
The Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme helms the taut and atmospheric tale, which comes packing a stacked ensemble that also features Meryl Streep, Jon Voight, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schrieber and Anthony Mackie. Star powered thrillers and Denzel Washington vehicles always do well on Netflix, so combine the two and The Manchurian Candidate should find a sizeable crowd on the platform now that it’s been added.
