Eddie Murphy‘s 2025 heist comedy is dominating Prime Video immediately after its release. Best known for starring in the Beverly Hills Cop series, Murphy has enjoyed significant box office successes throughout his career — but some of his movies also fell short, with a few considered to be flops.
More recently, the star has found success in the streaming era. In 2023, his Christmas movie, Candy Cane Lane, became Amazon MGM Studios’ most-streamed movie at that time despite having received mixed reviews. In 2024, Murphy’s Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F debuted as one of the most-watched English-speaking movies on Netflix and spent at least a week in the streamer’s Top 10.
Eddie Murphy’s The Pickup Is The Most Popular Movie On Prime Video
Arriving on Prime Video on Aug. 6, the new heist comedy The Pickup stars Murphy as a truck driver, Russell Pierce, who is ambushed by criminals at a routine cash pickup. Teaming up with Pete Davidson’s Travis, the unlikely duo with clashing personalities is forced to deal with all the challenges that come their way together.
In addition to starring, Murphy also produced The Pickup alongside director Tim Story, John Davis, Charisse M. Hewitt, and John Fox.
The new action movie was met with mixed reviews, garnering a 35% critics score and a 50% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. While both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times gave it positive reviews, some accused Story of lazy filmmaking and rated The Pickup as one of the worst films of this year.
Despite its polarizing reception, The Pickup has soared on Amazon Prime Video’s streaming charts, securing the No.1 spot as the most-viewed movie in the U.S., followed by Ice Cube’s War of the World in second place and King of the Planet of the Apes in third.
What Being A Streaming Hit Means For The Pickup
The Pickup is the latest Eddie Murphy movie to achieve streaming success upon its debut, drawing in mᴀssive viewership within hours of its release and establishing the Beverly Hills star as a consistent draw in the streaming era. Interestingly, despite its overall “rotten” RT score on the outside, many of those who left a less-than-satisfying rating admitted to having enjoyed the movie.
ScreenRant‘s Alex Harrison gave The Pickup three stars out of 10. While admitting the movie is “no disaster,” he pointed out that it is “undeniably a waste of its considerable comedic resources,” but even then, he “laughed, early and relatively often” and enjoyed the 94 minutes of its runtime.
The Pickup may not be a cult classic in the making, but the premise and star power do draw a crowd. On the other hand, how long it’ll stay at the top spot on the streaming chart remains to be seen.
