A Liam Neeson thriller with just 54% on Rotten Tomatoes is now atop the streaming charts on Hulu. It’s no surprise to see one of Neeson’s films put up big numbers on streaming, just given the number of тιтles the veteran action hero cranks out. Indeed, the Taken franchise star arguably puts out too many movies, causing a lot of them to get lost in the shuffle.
A recent Neeson film that deserved a bigger audience, The Land of Saints and Sinners went nowhere in its theatrical release, but found viewers when it began streaming on Prime Video earlier in 2025. Netflix is another place to find neglected Neeson releases, like his completely forgotten fantasy movie sequel Wrath of the тιтans, which found its way onto the streaming charts just last week.
Liam Neeson’s 54% RT Thriller Absolution Is Now The Top Streaming Movie On Hulu
Neeson Plays A Regretful Thug
Neeson’s 2024 thriller Absolution can now be counted among the star’s streaming hits, after rising to top Hulu’s chart, despite a 54% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes. The film stars Neeson as the bluntly named “Thug,” an aging mob enforcer suffering from CTE, who looks to reconnect with his family before his time runs out.
It may have been largely ignored when it was released in theaters last year, but Absolution has spurred enough curiosity on streaming to find its way to the #1 spot on Hulu’s U.S. movie chart for June 18, 2025 (via Flixpatrol).
Our Take On Absolution Becoming A Streaming Hit
Neeson’s Movies FIt Perfectly On Streaming
Absolution made barely a dent at the box office when it came out last November, finishing 12th domestically in its opening weekend with $1.4 million grossed on 1,500 screens. Critics did little to help the movie’s cause, giving it mostly lukewarm-to-negative reviews, as indicated by its 54% RT fresh rating.
The plot of Absolution indeed sounds similar to that of another Neeson movie, 2022’s Memory, which saw the star playing a hitman stricken with Alzheimer’s, who has just a limited time to settle old scores before he loses his ability to remember them. Given Neeson’s prolific output, some repeтιтion is to be expected, just by the laws of mathematical probability. It’s not helpful, however, for a star’s movies to blend together into a big blur, until the star himself likely can’t remember which film is which.
The blurry sameness of Neeson’s action offerings is indeed detrimental to their theatrical prospects, but makes absolutely no difference when it comes to their chances on streaming. A Hulu subscriber who happens upon the thumbnail for Absolution can click it, watch it for a while, and then turn it off if they aren’t into it (or fall asleep to it and pick it up again the next day).
The film’s rise to #1 on its current streaming home really proves nothing, except that Neeson is a known quanтιтy, and a familiar, even comforting presence, whose movies usually look like they’re at least worth a try. Action heroes like Neeson are indeed a valuable commodity to streamers, as they seek to keep their lineups stocked with audience-friendly content. Movies like Absolution have become the bread-and-ʙuттer of services like Hulu.
Source: Flixpatrol
