Universal’s 2017 reboot of The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, is sitting at no. 2 on the Netflix Daily Top 10.
A reboot of the Brendan Fraser-led Mummy franchise, the film stars Cruise as a US Army sergeant who unearths the tomb of an Egyptian princess named Ahmanet. The fantasy-adventure flick was directed Alex Kurtzman from a screenplay by David Koepp (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One), and Dylan Kussman. Sofia Boutella plays Ahmanet, a loosely reimagined version of Imhotep from the original franchise, with Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe, Javier Botet, and Marwan Kenzari.
After the 2008 release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a fourth entry in the Fraser franchise was ultimately scrapped. The concept of a reboot was developed in order to kickstart what Universal would call its ‘Dark Universe,’ a modern-day cinematic universe based on classic Universal Monsters. The Mummy premiered to mostly negative reviews and made $410 million against a rumored budget of $195 million, effectively canceling the Dark Universe.
“It is hard to make that movie,” Fraser told Variety, sharing his thoughts on why the movie flopped. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”
The Mummy is streaming on Netflix now, where it threatens to nab the no. 1 spot. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies to stream right now.