April 15th, 2013 will be a day long remembered for the city of Boston and indeed, much of the United States, for it was when a devastating terrorist attack rocked the country during the Boston Marathon. A truly tragic event, it’s since been explored and examined through several films and documentaries, one of which is Peter Berg’s Patriots Day.
Patriots Day follows Mark Wahlberg’s Sgt. Tommy Saunders, who’s sent to work the Boston Marathon’s VIP area. Any other day it’d be a fairly easy task, and nothing too memorable, but that day wasn’t just any other day. After hearing one explosion and seeing another, all hell breaks loose and thus begins the longest few days in Saunders’ professional career.
The thing is, despite a fantastic performance from Wahlberg and generally solid reviews, Patriots Day didn’t do too well in theaters. As CinemaBlend points out, it cost about $40-$45 million to produce and only brought in $52 million worldwide. That’s not exactly what the studio was hoping to see and to put it into perspective, Wahlberg and Berg’s Lone Survivor also had a $40 million budget but made $154 million worldwide.
However, since arriving on Netflix this week, Patriots Day has been a monster hit, finding itself on the platform’s Top 10 charts consistently and hitting some pretty high positions over the last few days. In fact, as of today, it’s the #1 most watched film on the streaming site and subscribers are absolutely loving it, as you can see below:
https://twitter.com/victoriaberri0s/status/1279819167294775296
Patriots Day is on Netflix. If you never saw this movie I HIGHLY recommend it. One of my favorites of the last few years. Peter Berg & Mark Wahlberg handled this one with care & respect & still made a riveting & suspenseful film. Check it out! #PariotsDay #Netflix #ChallengeMania pic.twitter.com/3BlIyP6FtH
— Scott Yager (@SHOTOFYAGER) July 5, 2020
Just watched patriots day for the first time, and holy shit it’s really good but overwhelmingly sad.
— Brandad (@BrandonHanback) July 5, 2020
Patriots day is a really good movie
— dawn ☀️🍓 (@atlstrwberry) July 5, 2020
Patriots day is a 10/10 recommend on Netflix!
— riah (@riahb01) July 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/anaquezada_/status/1279667742371536901
https://twitter.com/Nitsch5/status/1279665105471299584
Finally watched Patriots Day. Mark Wahlberg kills it.
— ~drea~ (@drea__smith) July 5, 2020
Highly recommend watching Patriots Day on Netflix for those of you who want to defund the police.
— abigayle (@abbysmith2599) July 5, 2020
Patriots day is an incredible movie. I am so proud to be an American citizen. I love my country ❤🤍💙
— Bangs (@TheEZbangs) July 5, 2020
Watched Patriots Day on Netflix last night. That was such a good movie, really incredible how they captured every detail of every event that played out throughout that week. It felt as if you were really watching it play out live.
— Kyle (@mcnultyk9) July 5, 2020
Of course, given that it’s the July 4th weekend, it’s perhaps not surprising that so many people are flocking to a movie of this nature. But whatever the reason behind it, its sudden surge of popularity is certainly well deserved.
Though not a perfect film, Patriots Day is still an excellent watch and like we said above, it features some of Mark Wahlberg‘s best work to date. So, if for some reason you failed to catch it during its theatrical run, be sure to flip it on on Netflix this week when you get the chance and see what you’ve been missing out on.