8 Years Later, Ryan Reynolds’ Forgotten ‘Alien’ Dupe Finds Streaming Success

Perhaps the last time that Ryan Reynolds worked with an ensemble cast, the movie Life debuted in theaters only a year after he'd struck gold with the first Deadpool. Reynolds had been struggling to break into the A-list for several years prior to Deadpool's unprecedented success, and he has worked almost exclusively in franchise-oriented films since then. In many ways, Life marked the end of an era. Modeled closely on Ridley Scott's classic Alien, the movie featured a bunch of characters trapped aboard a spaceship with a mysterious creature hunting them down. Life didn't exactly set the box office on fire in its original run, but is proving to be quite successful on streaming now.

According to FlixPatrol, the movie has been consistently finding spots on the global HBO Max viewership charts in the last few days, finishing eighth on November 1, when the leader board was topped by Zach Cregger's Weapons. The movie, which also featured Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Shōgun star Hiroyuki Sanada, beat out the comedy This is 40, and the new I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot. Life grossed just around $100 million worldwide, against a reported production budget nearly $60 million.

Life was directed by Daniel Espinosa, who'd previously worked with Reynolds on the hit action-thriller Safe House, which also featured Denzel Washingtonand emerged as a major hit, grossing over $200 million worldwide. He went on to direct the derided superhero flop Morbius, starring Jared Leto. Life debuted to mixed reviews, and is now sitting at a 67% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics' consensus reads, "Life is just thrilling, well-acted, and capably filmed enough to overcome an overall inability to add new wrinkles to the trapped-in-space genre."

The Cast of 'Life' Has Only Experienced More Success Since Its Release

Reynolds recently delivered the biggest hit of his career, the $1.3 billion-grossing Deadpool & Wolverine. Ferguson can currently be seen in the breakout Netflix hit A House of Dynamite, while Gyllenhaal recently delivered his own streaming superhit, Road House. The movie is currently embroiled in a controversy around its sequel(s). Sanada, on the other hand, is ready to return with the second season of FX's stellar hit Shōgun. You can watch them all fight an alien together in Life, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Release Date

March 24, 2017

Runtime

104 Minutes

Writers

Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese