You’d think the biggest movie on streaming this past weekend would comfortably be Netflix’s latest action-packed original blockbuster, with A-lister Gal Gadot going full 007 in the platform’s Heart of Stone. And yet, that hasn’t proven to be the case.
While director Tom Harper’s widely-panned globetrotting escapade did comfortably emerge as its home streamer’s title of choice after rocketing right to number one in a mammoth 84 countries worldwide, there’s another on-demand exclusive that’s reached the summit in more countries.
Unapologetically LGBTQ+ rom-com and literary adaptation Red, White & Royal Blue has proven to be the real winner, with FlixPatrol revealing that it’s defeated Heart of Stone in the race to hit the top spot in as many nations as possible after racking up an impressive 87 first-place debuts around the world.
It goes without saying that it’s been faring significantly better with critics, too, seeing as director popular cross-continental caper has amassed a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 80 percent from critics and 94 percent from audiences, compared to the respective 30 and 60 notched by Heart of Stone.
Of course, it’s all fairly trivial in the end when the latter is looking more and more likely to become the latest mind-numbing Netflix extravaganza to give rise to at least one sequel if not more, which was to be expected when proven genre favorite Gadot is headlining and producing her own answer to the established titans of espionage cinema.
Red, White & Royal Blue is still technically a bigger success right out of the gate, though, underlining the popularity and appeal of both the source material and its live-action debut.