Roland Emmerich has become a master at making disaster movies, but very few of his later movies came close to the success of his best film, Independence Day. The director followed up the success of that 30-year-old masterpiece with titles like The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, Independence Day: Resurgence, and Moonfall, and none of them reached the critical success of his breakout disaster film. Even worse, that latter disaster movie was a box-office failure, whereas the other films at least made decent box office worldwide. The good news for Emmerich is that his 2022 flop is now a trending hit on Prime Video.
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According to FlixPatrol, Moonfall moved into the top 10 overall list on July 11 and hit sixth place on the top 10 movies list. It was one of only two new additions to that list, along with Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers – Sabrina Ionescu, and it has made Emmerich’s flop into a minor streaming success.
Moonfall is Trending on Prime Video
Moonfall was a huge disappointment for Roland Emmerich when it was released in 2022. The film had a monstrous $150 million budget and only made $67.3 million at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo. It only made a total of $19 million in North America, a considerable financial loss for the studio. It was also a critical disappointment, with a 35% Rotten Tomatoes score, although it has a higher 69% audience score. That is likely a reason it is seeing success on streaming, where it never had a chance in theaters.
The biggest problem with Moonfall is that the reviews revealed its bizarre sci-fi story, which played into the disaster aspects of the film. Most of Emmerich’s movies are sci-fi in nature, but at least based on familiar tropes. Independence Day is about an alien invasion. The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 are based on natural disasters on a grand scale. Moonfall is about the moon getting knocked out of its orbit, where it begins to hurtle toward Earth in an event that would cause annihilation.
While the idea of the moon starting to hurtle toward Earth is a little hard to understand, the actual sci fi behind the reasoning is even more bizarre, which makes Moonfall the most high-concept yet confusing movie that Emmerich has made. The cast was solid, with recognizable names like Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, Michael Peña, Charlie Plummer, and Donald Sutherland, but not even that could get people into theaters to see the movie, just one year after the pandemic shut down theaters nationwide. Audiences were more selective when going back out in public, and that movie didn’t have what it took to bring audiences into theaters.
However, fans are more forgiving on streaming services, where even the most ridiculous movies can find success when watched at home. Humorously, Neil deGrasse Tyson said that Moonfall violated the laws of physics per minute than any other sci-fi film in history, beating out Armageddon. That is a big reason it is a perfect movie to find success on streaming.
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