Back in the summer of 2013, most analysts were expecting the battle of ‘Die Hard in the White House’ movies to be comfortably won by White House Down.
After all, director Roland Emmerich boasted a proven track record for helming mega budget blockbusters that did major business at the box office, and he had two big stars in the lead roles with Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum. Olympus Has Fallen, meanwhile, hailed from the solid but unspectacular Antoine Fuqua, with the action hero/president combo filled by Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart.
White House Down may have ultimately earned more money, bringing in $205 million compared to Olympus‘ $170 million, but it also cost twice as much to produce, so it was Butler’s Mike Banning who ended up headlining a franchise of his own. Second installment London Has Fallen delivered more of the same, while threequel Angel Has Fallen freshened up the formula a little by finally giving Morgan Freeman the presidency for the first time since Deep Impact and roping in Nick Nolte to have a blast as Banning’s estranged father.
The Fallen series has never done massive business, but it’s evidently been hugely profitable seeing as fourth entry Night Has Fallen is already in development. And after hauling in almost $150 million from theaters in the summer of 2019, Angel Has Fallen has regularly troubled the Netflix most-watched since first being added to the library.
In fact, it’s spent the entirety of this week inside the Top 20, and at the time of writing, it’s one of the fifteen most popular movies on the platform, which is no surprise when the weekends are designed for watching Gerard Butler shoot bad guys in the face.