Gerard Butler‘s sequels are apparently like buses, as you wait years for one to come along, and then all of a sudden two come along and are dominating at the same time on HBO Max. Ever since his role in Zack Snyder’s 300 (which you might be horrified to realize was 20 years ago), the Scottish actor has established himself as a reliable leading man in action vehicles, from the Has Fallen trilogy to standalones such as Geostorm and Plane.
That can very much be seen on streaming right now, because the star is the current king of HBO Max both in the United States and globally, with three movies trending on the streaming service, as per FlixPatrol. On the worldwide front, his 2025 sequel Den of Thieves 2: Pantera is at #3. Things are even better in America: his 2020 disaster movie, Greenland, is at #2, and its sequel, the post-apocalyptic Greenland 2: Migration, has quickly taken the top spot, having been added to the platform just a few days earlier.
It’s not untypical for new releases to surge to the top of streaming charts, especially when they aren’t too long out of theaters. Den of Thieves 2 released last year, but didn’t find a huge audience at the time, grossing $58 million against a $40m budget. While its reviews were mixed, with 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, viewers have been much kinder, with a 79% audience score on the platform. It may not be breaking much new ground, but it’s an easy watch on streaming, able to coast by on Butler’s charisma, some solid action scenes, and some knowing humor.
That’s all even more true in the case of Greenland 2. The movie only released in theaters back in January, so the chance to see a big budget flick on streaming just a few months later is definitely the kind of thing that drives viewers to a particular film on a streaming service. Again, it didn’t perform well at the box office, earning just shy of $45m on a budget double that amount, nor were critics enamored with it (49% on Rotten Tomatoes), but it still offers up enough entertainment factor and a solid Butler performance for movie night at home.
With that doing so well, it also makes sense that HBO Max would be pushing the first Greenland movie, with people either rewatching it or viewing it for the first time, since it was a pandemic-era release. That movie actually has pretty solid reviews (78% on RT), and is exactly the kind of fun you want from a disaster movie. It’s comfortably the best of these three Butler movies currently trending on streaming, but all three are worth checking out.
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