The prequel nobody asked for to a comic book abomination that lost over $100 million tells its redundant origin story on the streaming Top 10

On paper, it makes absolutely no sense to give the okay to a prequel origin story to not just one of the worst comic book adaptations there’s ever been, but one of the biggest box office bombs in history. And yet, for reasons entirely unknown and largely unexplainable, R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned is a thing that exists.

The original had a decent enough concept that was easily marketable as Ghostbusters meets Men in Black, with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges making for an inspired pairing, at least until people had a chance to see the movie for themselves. R.I.P.D. sank without a trace in theaters after earning just $78 million globally, notching a 12 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and losing north of $100 million.

Naturally, then, the story of how Sheriff Roy Pulsipher ended up in the afterlife in the first place was something that was deemed worthy of telling, despite critics and audiences making it abundantly clear that they didn’t care about the characters first time around. Undeterred, Rise of the Damned landed last year on digital and VOD, where it once again faded into irrelevance in no time at all.

Until this week, apparently, because Max subscribers have bizarrely decided the R.I.P.D. follow-up that nobody was asking for is appointment viewing on streaming. Per FlixPatrol, the monotonous period-set successor to a risible original has become the fifth most-watched feature on the entire platform, even if it’s hard to wrap your head around a prequel to an all-time flop even existing in the first place, never mind sinking its hooks into a whole new crowd.