Gerard Butler’s 2017’s action sci-fi ascends streaming charts after its dismal theatrical performance. Though not all of Butler’s films work upon release, the star has become a reliable lead of a certain kind of film, often in the mid-budget action category.
Butler, for example, starred in Den of Thieves (2018) and its sequel, 2025’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. He’s also the face of the Has Fallen franchise, which has been reliably successful since its first installment in 2013. Butler is expected to return for the announced Night Has Fallen sequel.
In recent years, Butler has also been seen in action flicks like Plane (2022) and Kandahar (2023), the former of which was a surprise hit. Outside of this more typical action fare, Butler has also led several disaster films, including 2020’s successful Greenland and a 2017 movie that approached the disaster genre with a sci-fi twist.
Geostorm Dominates On Streaming 8 Years Later
After failing to impress critics and audiences at the time of its release, Geostorm is now picking up major steam on streaming. Directed by Dean Devlin, the film stars Butler as Jake Lawson, a satellite designer who must race against the clock to save Earth after a network of climate-controlling satellites go rogue.
Also starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Abbie Cornish, Andy Garcia, and Zazie Beetz, Geostorm reviews were overwhelmingly negative from critics, earning the film an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Gerard Butler movie was also a financial disappointment given its large budget, grossing only $220 million.
Now, though, Geostorm ranks as the second most popular movie on HBO Max worldwide as of September 14, falling only behind Hypnotic (2021). The Butler film is beating hit тιтles like Karate Kid: Legends (2025), The Conjuring 2 (2016), and White Chicks (2004).
What This Means For Geostorm
Made on an estimated budget of $120 million, Geostorm may have been looking at a break-even point of around $300 million. Streaming success seems unlikely to bridge this gap, but the film’s newfound popularity does speak to Butler’s enduring appeal as a movie star, even when the films themselves aren’t initially successful.
The general rule or thumb is that a Hollywood movie has to gross around two-and-a-half times its budget in order to reach profitability.
What’s curious about Geostorm‘s domination on HBO Max is the fact that the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score, the score determined by audiences, is only 35%. The film itself may not reach the highs of something like Greenland, but Butler’s face on the tile and the outlandish premise is evidently enough to get HBO Max subscribers to press play.
No Geostorm sequel will be coming anytime soon, but those looking for more Butler disaster movie action don’t have too long to wait, with Greenland: Migration set to arrive in January 2026. For now, though, this 2018 sci-fi disaster flick is clearly tiding audiences over.
