Gerard Butler‘s career began in the mid-1990s with brief appearances in the James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Tale of the Mummy (1998). During the early 2000s, Butler continued to star in franchise films, playing the eponymous role in Dracula 2000 and appearing in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003).
Butler achieved major fame as King Leonidas in Zack Snyder’s 300 (2007). Beginning in 2010, he voiced Stoick the Vast in the animated How to Train Your Dragon franchise and reprised the role in the recent live-action remake. The same decade, he starred as a Secret Service agent in three Has Fallen movies.
Butler continued building his action résumé with roles in Geostorm (2017), Den of Thieves (2018), and the disaster drama Greenland (2020). In 2023, he starred in the airborne thriller Plane, and now, one of Gerard Butler’s action thrillers has gained unexpected popularity on streaming.
Kandahar Becomes A Streaming Hit
Kandahar has become a streaming hit, falling below only the movie that remains undisputed on streaming. Helmed by Ric Roman Waugh, who also wrote and directed Angel Has Fallen (2019), the 2023 action thriller is inspired by true events and stars Gerard Butler as a CIA agent who must escape Afghanistan after his secret mission is compromised.
In addition to Butler starring in the lead role, the film features a supporting cast that includes Navid Negahban, Ali Fazal, Bahador Foladi, Nina Toussaint-White, Vᴀssilis Koukalani, Mark Arnold, Tom Rhys Harries, Corey Johnson, Travis Fimmel, Ravi Aujla, Ray Haratian, Olivia-Mai Barrett, Rebecca Calder, Faizan Munawar Ibrahim, and Elnaaz Norouzi.
Now, a few years after its release, Kandahar ranks second on Netflix’s Top 10 movies in the United States for today, August 11. It ranks below only KPop Demon Hunters, and above Gods of Egypt, Happy Gilmore 2, Marry Me, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, My Oxford Year, Freelance, The 5th Wave, and Megamind.
What This Means For Kandahar
Though it ranks second on Netflix’s Top 10 movies today, Kandahar was at number one yesterday, which is impressive considering that KPop Demon Hunters has been the undisputed king of streaming. It’s ranked first or second for the past six weeks it’s been on the platform, and has become Netflix’s fourth most-watched movie of all time.
Kandahar is an unlikely candidate to briefly dethrone KPop Demon Hunters, considering it made little noise at the box office in 2023, grossing only $9.4 million, and received mostly negative reviews from critics. However, if you want nonstop action and Gerard Butler at the top of his game, Kandahar won’t disappoint.
