A Forgotten Chris Hemsworth Flop Became An Instant Hit On Netflix

It feels like Chris Hemsworth has been a full-fledged movie star for a long time, but he's a young pup compared to his "The Avengers" co-stars. While Hemsworth was well known in his native Australia after a series of television appearances in the 2000s, he didn't make his Hollywood feature debut until 2009 as the father of Captain James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek." So, he was only two whole years into his film acting career when he landed his thus far defining role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then, he's worked with a couple of legendary auteurs ("Blackhat" with Michael Mann and "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" with George Miller), but for the most part he's clearly defined, perhaps even a tad typecast, as Thor.

Now that the MCU appears to be in a calling-all-cars brand conundrum in the wake of its post-"Avengers: Endgame" box office uncertainty (which has forced Marvel Studios to bring Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans back into the fold), Hemsworth may not be breaking free of the God of Thunder anytime soon. This would be unfortunate because he was magnificently depraved in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," and clearly has the potential to do more nuanced character work if given the opportunity. Alas, one of the few films that previously offered him the chance to flaunt his thespian chops turned out to be a pricey box office flop. And while that movie is now getting some love via streaming, will that be enough to repair its reputation and bolster Hemsworth's cred as a first-rate actor?

According to Flix Patrol, Ron Howard's 2015 flop "In the Heart of the Sea" is currently the most watched film on Netflix. Since debuting on the service last week, it's outperformed other new entries like Kevin Costner's 2024 bomb "Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1" and, interestingly, "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" (which, having also grossed less than its exorbitant production budget, would seem ripe for a strong streaming run). But why is this 10-year-old Hemsworth film more popular than his big 2024 movie?

Howard's film purports to tell the true story of the real-life whaling expedition that inspired Herman Melville to write "Moby-Dick," which obviously proved to be a not so terribly effective hook when the movie opened to a piddling $11.1 million domestically on December 11, 2015. The film was subsequently swept out of multiplexes by the arrival of "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens," and pretty well forgotten until now. One element that may be inspiring folks to finally take the plunge at home is its stacked cast: accompanying Hemsworth on this whale-stalking journey are Tom Holland, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whishaw. Two beloved MCU stars and the red-hot Murphy is certainly a zestier draw than revisiting a novel most people had shoved down their throats before they were old enough to appreciate its brilliance.

Whatever's driving this excitement, it'll be interesting to see if it's enough to keep the film from eventually falling behind the far superior "Furiosa," which continues to be oddly unappetizing to the bulk of mainstream moviegoers.