Denzel Washington’s 10-Year-Old Action Thriller Hitting Netflix’s Top 10 Is A Reminder Of One Harsh Truth

Denzel Washington’s 2014 action-thriller The Equalizer has hit Netflix and immediately shot into the Top 10, but its newfound success just underscores one disappointing reality for the franchise. Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua first teamed up for The Equalizer in 2014.

The original movie made $192 million on just a $55 million budget, becoming a big hit and earning solid reviews for its stylish action and the powerful teamwork of Fuqua and Washington. Since then, The Equalizer trilogy, now streaming, has only gotten stronger.

As a former Marine Corps. gunnery sergeant and black ops agent for U.S. intelligence, the character of Robert McCall has fit Denzel Washington like a glove. McCall can’t just be played by an actor who can handle a gun or throw a punch; he also needs a commanding screen presence.

Denzel Washington has now become synonymous with the role, even with it having been a book first, then a 1980s TV series, and now a current TV series starring Queen Latifah as a gender-flipped McCall. Washington is the actor equated with the franchise. That’s why it’s disappointing he’ll likely never return to the role, despite The Equalizer enjoying newfound success on Netflix.

Despite the wait, The Equalizer 3 proved successful, both at the box office and then with its streaming release on Netflix. Worldwide, the threequel made $191 million on a budget of $70 million, turning a great profit, so the audience was obviously invested. The movie is also Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 76% critics score and an excellent 94% audience score.

It later went on to trend on Netflix and reinvigorate audiences, some of whom had already seen it in theaters and had just been waiting for it to hit streaming. Almost a decade after the first movie was released, the trilogy is clearly going strong.

Now the original movie has hit Netflix, and it’s also proving popular with viewers. Netflix’s viewing numbers for The Equalizer are incredible, with it hitting the #8 spot in the streamer’s Top 10 with 3.5 million views during the first week of July. That’s doubly impressive considering that the time frame covers the 4th of July holiday when more people are at barbecues and pool parties than sitting at home binging Netflix movies. Equally as impressive is that despite it being a decade-old movie, enough people are interested in it to put it into Netflix’s top spots.