Prior to his upcoming stint directing the next generation of James Bond, Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated 2016 sci-fi drama Arrival is seeing an unexpected global climb-up in streaming charts. The film is headlined by Amy Adams (DCEU’s Lois Lane) and Jeremy Renner (MCU’s Hawkeye) and has quietly climbed into the Top 10 streaming charts across HBO, Amazon Prime, Google, and iTunes in over 30 countries this past week. The film currently holds a 94% Rotten Tomatoes critics score, 82% audience score, and 7.9/10 ratings on IMDb, and is a nice combination of grounded emotional storytelling and science fiction. On HBO, the film is trending in nearly all of Latin America, consistently charting in countries like Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. The film has also hit #3 on Amazon Prime in Australia, and appeared on Google Play’s Top 10 in 12 countries, including Ukraine, Kuwait, and Tanzania. On iTunes, Arrival is ranked in Honduras and Mongolia, showing strong niche traction. This sudden surge likely reflects growing interest in Villeneuve’s body of work after the success of Dune and Dune: Part Two. Add to that Adams and Renner’s dual superhero appeal, and Arrival becomes a rare film that bridges cerebral storytelling, mainstream star power — basically a sci-fi film that keeps viewers hooked till the end.
Despite Its Quiet Tone, ‘Arrival’ Made a Loud Impact at the Box Office

Though Arrival wasn’t built like a traditional blockbuster, it delivered strong box office results globally. The film was released in November 2016 and grossed $24 million during its U.S. opening weekend. It went on to earn $100.5 million domestically. Internationally, it brought in an additional $103.9 million, pushing its worldwide lifetime haul to $203 million against a modest production budget of $47 million. That’s more than four times its budget, a major success for a cerebral sci-fi drama with no franchise branding or pre-existing IP. Much of that can be credited to Denis Villeneuve’s direction and the powerful cast ensemble, which also included Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlbarg, among others. Critics and awards buzz also played a big role. Arrival debuted to glowing reviews at film festivals, and word-of-mouth propelled its box office legs far beyond expectations. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and enjoyed a long and steady theatrical run, followed by a re-release in January 2017 after an initial one in November 2016. Arrival is currently trending across multiple regions and platforms and is available to stream on HBO and Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Arrival

Release Date

November 11, 2016

Runtime

116 minutes

Source: FlixPatrol, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb