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One of the Biggest Movie Flops of the Year Is a Streaming Hit. Now What?
Argylle was chainsawed by critics, rejected by initial audiences, and is proving theatrical releases are worth it anyway.
I was with Liman spiritually — I got to see Road House in a theater and felt that its frenetic, free-flowing fight scenes worked particularly well in that setting — but I also understood why a movie that was already a remake of a 1980s junk-food cult classic whose reputation had been gradually redeemed via home video maybe shouldn’t go out on thousands of screens. Again, I don’t put much trust in any of these numbers, but much like Road House and unlike, say, Red Notice(starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds, now streaming exclusively on Netflix), Argylle did seem to get people talking again. But they have been rear-guard actions, films whose digital-release plans were reversed because of some good test screenings, or because an influential individual intervened (as Jordan Peele did with Monkey Man), or because the executives in charge belatedly came to their senses.
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