Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher on the Phone with a Cut on His Face in Jack Reacher Never Go Back-1

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back has become a success on Netflix in the United States eight years after its theatrical debut. The 2016 action-thriller sequel starring Tom Cruise is an adaptation of the 2013 Lee Child novel Never Go Back, following Cruise’s title character attempting to uncover a government conspiracy and clear the name of his former Army unit’s leader, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders). The Jack Reacher: Never Go Back cast also includes Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Holt McCallany, and Jessica Stroup.

Netflix has now calculated their Top 10 most-watched movies in the United States for the week of July 29 through August 4. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back has landed on the chart at No. 2, above the new Netflix original Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie. It is also the third-oldest movie on the entire chart, behind a pair of 2015 releases, namely Minions (No. 7), which is likely trending because of the current theatrical hit Despicable Me 4, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (No. 8).

Is The Reacher Show Helping The Tom Cruise Movies?

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Wasn’t Necessarily Well-Received In 2016.

Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin hiding behind a car with Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher.

While the movie franchise remains dormant for the time being, its reputation may be rehabilitated if the 2016 installment’s Netflix popularity translates to an increase in general affection.

This Netflix success may come as a surprise considering the movie’s overall reception in 2016. Although it made $162.1 million against its $60 million budget, this was a significant drop from 2012’s Jack Reacher, which made $218.3 million against the same budget. Its Rotten Tomatoes scores also show a significant decrease in interest on the part of both audiences and critics. Below, see how both the Tom Cruise Jack Reacher movies performed on the review aggregator platform:

Title
Critic Score
Audience Score

Jack Reacher (2012)
64%
67%

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
38%
42%

The fact that the 2016 movie has landed so high on the chart despite its critical and commercial reception is likely because of the popularity of the Prime Video show Reacher, which is adapted from the same series of Lee Child novels. Instead of Cruise, the show features Alan Ritchson in the title role, and while there is some basic overlap in the premise and character, there are otherwise no links between the two franchises. However, the increased interest in the source material could boost interest in adaptations across the board.

Ultimately, given that the show is still running, it seems unlikely that there will ever be a third movie that follows up on the Jack Reacher: Never Go Back ending. However, the show and the movies seem to have entered a sort of symbiotic relationship. While the movie franchise remains dormant for the time being, its reputation may be rehabilitated if the 2016 installment’s Netflix popularity translates to an increase in general affection.

Source: Netflix