Home Movies

A franchise-killing monstrosity inexplicably hits #1 on streaming

Our faith in humanity continues to dissipate.

the mummy
via Universal

Tom Cruise doesn’t star in a lot of bombs, which comes with the territory when you’ve been one of the biggest and most bankable stars on the planet across five decades, but even the long-tenured A-lister couldn’t save The Mummy from abject disaster.

Recommended Videos

Ironically, it was partly his fault as well, with reports running rampant that the leading man had effectively hijacked the production and assumed creative control on the intended launchpad for the laughable failure that was the Dark Universe, while director Alex Kurtzman has hardly been shy in admitting that his feature-length directorial debut was a colossal miscalculation on every level.

The plans to launch a shared mythology that rebranded Universal’s iconic stable of tragic figures as blockbuster action epics starring the cream of the Hollywood crop always seemed like a dumb idea on paper, and The Mummy helped prove that the entire concept was fatally flawed from the off.

Everyone (including the people who made it) knows The Mummy is one of the 21st Century’s worst blockbusters without a shadow of a doubt, but it’s somehow still conspired to become the number one most-watched movie on one of the biggest streaming services, which only serves to erode our faith in humanity a touch more.

As per FlixPatrol, the legendarily terrible fantasy/horror/action/Tom Cruise vehicle hybrid has hit the top spot on Prime Video’s global charts after stealthily sneaking up the rankings over the last few days. Mainland Europe specifically has a lot to answer for, especially when Brendan Fraser’s version is a thing that exists and is available to stream.