Box Office Flops That Became Streaming Hits

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare cost $60 million to make and earned just $29.8 million in theaters worldwide. In September 2026, it climbed to No. 2 on Netflix in the US. It’s one of several box office flops that became streaming hits, and their charts tell a better story than their reputations.

Below are seven recent movies that lost the fight in theaters and found a second life at home, with the charts to prove it. You’ll also see where each one streams today in the US, the UK and Germany, because the answer depends on the country you’re in.

7 box office flops that became streaming hits

Budgets exclude marketing. Box office is the worldwide theatrical total, and the last column sums up each movie’s best documented streaming result.

Box office figures come from Box Office Mojo, budgets from The Numbers and trade reporting, and streaming results from Netflix Top 10 and Nielsen. Keep in mind that theatrical revenue isn’t studio profit: theaters keep part of every ticket sold.

Where to stream these movies now, by country

The table shows subscription services only, as of October 7, 2026. “Rent or buy only” means no subscription service carries the movie in that country.

Source: TMDB, using JustWatch data, checked October 7, 2026. Catalogs change often, so treat this as a snapshot.

Look at the US column. The Northman and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare both stream on Netflix in the US, yet neither is on Netflix in the UK. That’s by design: according to Netflix’s help center, the catalog you see depends on the country you connect from. Connect through a VPN server in the US and Netflix shows you the US lineup on your own account. You keep paying for your subscription as usual; the VPN changes the location, not the bill. To see which countries get the most titles, check our Netflix library by country ranking.

Here’s the VPN we recommend for streaming right now:

How to watch a movie from another country’s catalog

1. Find the country

   Use the table above to see which country streams the movie on a subscription you already have.

2. Connect to a server there

   Open the VPN from our review and pick a server in that country.

3. Open the service and sign in

   Use your usual account, search for the title and press play. Your plan and your bill stay the same.

The stories behind the flops

Each movie missed in theaters for its own reasons. What they share is a documented second run at home.

The Fall Guy: 18 days to digital, then Peacock

The Fall Guy opened in US theaters on May 3, 2024. It carried a $125 million budget according to The Numbers, and Deadline put the cost at $130 million after tax incentives. The movie finished with $181.1 million worldwide, a thin result for that price once theaters take their share and the marketing bill comes in.

The studio didn’t wait long. The Fall Guy went up for digital purchase and rental on May 21, 2024, just 18 days after its theatrical debut. Over Labor Day weekend 2024, it premiered on Peacock and became the streamer’s biggest film debut since Oppenheimer. Nielsen ranked it the second most-watched movie on US streaming that weekend.

The most telling detail came from Deadline: an extended cut, 20 minutes longer than the theatrical version, accounted for 92% of the viewing. At home, audiences picked the longer movie almost every time.

Madame Web: No. 1 in its first Netflix week

Madame Web cost $80 million and grossed $100.5 million worldwide. Once marketing and the theaters’ share come out, that leaves little room for profit.

Home viewers were far more curious. The movie arrived on Netflix in May 2024 and went straight to No. 1 in the US in its first week. Globally, it placed No. 2 among English-language movies with 20.8 million hours viewed, or 10.8 million views, and it stayed in the global Top 10 for four weeks.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

At $205.5 million, Honor Among Thieves has the highest worldwide gross in this list. It also came with a $150 million budget, according to The Numbers and The Hollywood Reporter, second only to Furiosa among these seven movies.

Streaming gave it a long tail. On Netflix, it spent three weeks in the global Top 10 for English-language movies, in October 2024 and again in March 2025, peaking at No. 9 and charting in 83 countries. Nielsen data reported by TheWrap counted 439 million minutes watched on Netflix and Paramount+ combined, which made it the third most-watched movie on US streaming in the week of February 24, 2025.

As of October 7, 2026, it streams on Netflix and Paramount+ in the US. In the UK and Germany, you can only rent or buy it.

The Northman: “a win for us financially”

The Northman cost about $70 million, according to Deadline, and took $75.9 million in theaters worldwide.

The press never treated it as a success, but the studio saw it differently. “It actually ended up being a win for us financially,” Kiska Higgs, president of production and acquisitions at Focus Features, told The Hollywood Reporter. She credited a special set of circumstances around the theatrical release, plus premium video on demand. In December 2024, Deadline reported that the movie had found a huge audience on premium rental and in later windows, making it profitable for Universal.

Its Netflix moment came later still. In the week of August 31, 2025, The Northman ranked No. 8 in the global Top 10 for English-language movies with 8.2 million hours viewed.

Furiosa and Horizon: the same January week

Two 2024 releases ended up on the same Netflix chart. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga cost $168 million and grossed $174.4 million worldwide. Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1 cost about $100 million, according to Variety, and made just $38.8 million.

In the week ending January 5, 2025, both sat in Netflix’s global Top 10. Horizon placed No. 7 with 4.0 million views, while Furiosa came in at No. 9 with 3.8 million views and made the Top 10 in 58 countries. That same month, Nielsen ranked Horizon the No. 1 movie on US streaming two weeks in a row.

For a movie that earned well under half its budget in theaters, topping the US streaming chart is quite a turnaround. In the US, both movies now stream on HBO Max.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: the late bloomer

The most recent comeback on this list is still unfolding. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare came out in 2024 on a $60 million budget, per Variety, and grossed $29.8 million worldwide.

In September 2026, it spent two weeks in Netflix’s global Top 10 for English-language movies, at No. 6 and No. 7, with 3.4 million views each week. In the US, it ranked No. 3 and then No. 2. As of October 7, 2026, the US is the only country where it still appears in the Netflix Top 10.

Outside the US, check the table above: viewers in the UK and Germany can find it on Prime Video.

Why movies flop at the box office now

Fewer people go to the movies than before the pandemic. Box Office Mojo puts total revenue in the US and Canada at $11.36 billion in 2019 and $8.66 billion in 2025, which is 23.8% lower. The Numbers estimates that ticket sales fell by about 41% over the same period. Higher prices hide part of that drop: the average ticket cost $9.16 in 2019 and $11.96 in 2025.

The wait for home viewing got shorter, too. In July 2020, Universal and AMC agreed that movies could move to premium video on demand after 17 days in theaters, down from a window of almost three months. The Fall Guy went digital after 18 days.

Ben Affleck summed up the problem in a December 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, after The Last Duel bombed. In his view, the people who want complex adult dramas not based on existing franchises are the same people now telling themselves they don’t need to go out to a theater. The Last Duel cost $100 million and took $30.55 million worldwide. Awards and box office don’t always line up either: in our list of the best movies of 2025, the Best Picture winner made ten times less than the animated hit Ne Zha 2.

How streaming measures a hit

Streaming numbers aren’t ticket sales, so read them with care. Netflix counts views as total hours watched divided by a title’s runtime, and its weekly Top 10 runs Monday through Sunday. A view isn’t a person: two people who each watch half a movie add up to one view.

The Nielsen figure for Dungeons & Dragons is different: it counts minutes watched, not views, so the two numbers can’t be compared directly.

Missed one of these in theaters? Six of the seven stream on a subscription service in at least one country in our table. If yours isn’t one of them, a VPN lets you open the catalog where the movie streams today, on the account you already pay for.

Want more to watch? Our Netflix guide explains how the service works, and our picks of what to watch on Netflix can help you choose your next movie. Madame Web streams on Disney+ in the US. For a wider view, browse all streaming platforms, see which streaming services are available in the US, or compare options in our VPN reviews.