Denzel Washington’s $157 Million Dystopian Western Remains a Sleeper Hit in America

As Denzel Washington’s next movie, Highest 2 Lowest, prepares to begin its theatrical run, one of his older films has returned to streaming glory 15 years later. Washington stars alongside Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis in The Book of Eli, the 2010 R-rated dystopian western following a drifter who fights across a ravaged, post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book that holds humanity’s only chance of salvation. The Book of Eli is streaming on AMC+ in America, and it’s one of the most popular movies on the streamer, charting in the top five in recent days. The film grossed $157 million at the box office against an $80 million budget, and it earned a 46% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 64% on the audience-driven Popcornmeter.

Gary Whitta wrote the script for The Book of Eli, with Albert and Allen Hughes (The Hughes Brothers) stepping behind the camera to direct. Whitta is best known for his work as a scribe on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and he also wrote After Earth, the Will Smith-led action epic currently streaming on Netflix. Albert Hughes most recently ventured to the world of John Wick to direct several episodes of The Continental, the spin-off series streaming on Peacock with Mel Gibson. Allen Hughes has only directed one feature in the 15 years since The Book of Eli — three years later, he teamed up with Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe for Broken City, a political thriller streaming on Tubi. The Book of Eli came only three years after Washington starred in American Gangster, and two years before he teamed up with Ryan Reynolds for Safe House.