Last Vegas becomes a Netflix hit a decade after it was a box-office success. Released in 2013, the comedy film follows four friends who take a break from retired life to throw a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining single pal. The Last Vegas cast features four celebrated and seasoned stars – Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline – who went a long way toward making the movie a modest box-office success.
Now, a decade after Last Vegas was released in theaters, the star-studded comedy is now a hit on Netflix. For the week of October 2 to October 8, Last Vegas received 7.2 million viewing hours and 4.1 million total views, ranking 8th on the charts and marking its first week in Netflix’s Global Top 10.
Why Was Last Vegas Forgotten?
At the time of its release in 2013, Last Vegas opened to $16 million and came in third place at the box office. It ended its theatrical run with a final worldwide gross of $134 million, nearly five times its budget of $28 million. The comedy’s box office success gave its distributor, CBS Films, its highest-grossing release in its history, which begs the question of why, after only a decade, Last Vegas has largely been forgotten and is only now being rediscovered on Netflix.
Despite its modest box office success, Last Vegas was disregarded by critics as a retread of The Hangover with an older cast. This resulted in a 46 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where its audience score of 59 percent suggests that those who saw the film shared similar sentiments. The film’s four stars, none of which had ever shared the screen before Last Vegas, went a long way towards making the movie watchable, though it appears to offer little else. Even though Last Vegas may have been forgotten, audiences are now rediscovering it on Netflix.