It’s quite common for streaming movies these days to cost as much as major theatrical releases, but back in 2021, The Tomorrow War was something of an anomaly. Headlined by Chris Pratt, the science-fiction action film was the biggest title to be offloaded by Paramount during the pandemic, when the studio was witnessing a major financial crunch. During this time, it also sold off Alex Garland‘s Annihilation and Aaron Sorkin‘s The Trial of the Chicago 7 to Netflix. The Tomorrow War, along with the Eddie Murphy-led Coming 2 America, was offloaded to Prime Video.
Now, four years after its initial release, the science-fiction action film has re-emerged on the streaming charts, thanks to its availability on Max. Directed by Chris McKay, who’d previously made the well-liked animated hit The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War is a throwback to ’90s sci-fi spectacles like Independence Day and Godzilla. The movie cost a reported $200 million to produce, making it the most expensive direct-to-streaming title up till that point. This record has been broken many times since then, by movies such as Red One ($200 million) and more recently, by another movie led by Pratt, The Electric State ($320 million).
According to FlixPatrol, The Tomorrow War claimed the 10th spot on Max charts on June 20, behind last year’s hit animated film The Wild Robot. The list was led by The Alto Knights, starring Robert De Niro in a dual role. Released earlier this year, the gangster drama bombed at the box office. The Tomorrow War opened to mixed reviews, and currently holds a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score. The aggregator website’s consensus reads, “Chris Pratt ably anchors this sci-fi adventure, even if The Tomorrow War may not linger in the memory much longer than today.”
Pratt Is Among the Most In-Demand Stars In the Business
Despite the disastrous performance of The Electric State earlier this year, Pratt remains one of the most in-demand actors around, thanks to his roles in the Jurassic World and MCU franchises. He voiced the titular character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which made more than $1.3 billion worldwide a few years ago. He also voiced the main character in last year’s The Garfield Movie, which made over $250 million worldwide. His first theatrical release following The Tomorrow War was Jurassic World Dominion, which crawled past the $1 billion mark worldwide despite poor reviews. He will next be seen in Timur Bekmambetov‘s Mercy; incidentally, Pratt played a comic supporting role in the filmmaker’s Wanted, which was released in his pre-stardom days. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.