One of the Biggest Box Office Bombs of Matt Damon’s Career Is Redeeming Itself on Streaming

As excitement builds for director Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey, which debuted new stills and details recently, a couple of star Matt Damon‘s older movies witnessed a bump in interest on streaming. While his largely forgotten 2005 fantasy flop, The Brothers Grimm, found a top 10 spot on the global Netflix charts, the more recent bomb, The Last Duel, broke into the top 10 of the global HBO Max charts. Released in 2001, The Last Duel reunited Damon with his old friend and fellow Oscar-winner Ben Affleck, both as a co-star and co-writer. The medieval drama took a Rashomon-like approach to its plot, which presented a heinous incident from three perspectives.

According to FlixPatrol, The Last Duel was the seventh-most-watched movie on the global HBO Max charts on November 17, when the leaderboard was topped by Zach Cregger‘s recent horror hit, Weapons. The Last Duel beat out the likes of Dwayne Johnson‘s $250 million bomb Red One and Anne Hathaway‘s romantic drama The Idea of You. Directed by Ridley Scott, who’d previously worked with Damon on his biggest hit ever, The Martian, The Last Duel turned out to be one of their biggest-ever flops. The movie made just $30 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $100 million.

But its release in 2021 might have something to do with its performance; those were far scarier times, and audiences still hadn’t quite figured out whether it was safe to return to theaters yet or not. The Last Duel earned excellent reviews and is now sitting at a “certified fresh” 85% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “The Last Duel‘s critique of systemic misogyny isn’t as effective as it might have been, but it remains a well-acted and thought-provoking drama infused with epic grandeur.” Collider’s review at the time described it as “a film that cuts to the core of pathetic male bromides designed to prop up atrocious systems.”

Ridley Scott’s Last Movie Was Another Historical Epic

Praise was also directed at Jodie Comer‘s performance as the central character, as well as Nicole Holofcener‘s writing in the chapter centered on her. Scott also directed the true crime drama House of Gucci in the same year; the movie proved to be far more successful at the box office. The filmmaker’s last release was the epic action sequel Gladiator II, which made more than $460 million worldwide; the one before that was Napoleon, another historical epic.

You can watch The Last Duel at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.