Interceptor is 1 on Netflix - and director Matthew Reilly is confused 👀 'I was hoping to sneak into the top 10 on Netflix, but coming in at number one everywhere? I don’t think anybody was expecting it... I’m just as confused as everybody else.' 😂
Interceptor director Matthew Reilly responds to his movie occupying the #1 spot on Netflix. Reilly, who began his career as a novelist, undertakes his very first directorial project with Interceptor, an action film about a lone female Army Captain who is the last line of defense after terrorists attack a remote missile interceptor station. The film, which also earns Reilly his first screenwriting credit, is produced by Chris Hemsworth, whose wife, Elsa Pataky, is the movie's star.
Interceptor released at the end of May, earning mostly negative reviews from both audiences and critics, with the film currently sporting a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie takes place in a single location, with the action contained to the missile interceptor station in the middle of the ocean.
It’s blown me away. I was hoping to sneak into the top 10 on Netflix, but coming in at number one everywhere? I don’t think anybody was expecting it to take the world by storm. I’m just as confused as everybody else. In light of Netflix's projected drop in subscribers and their plan to scale back big-budget"vanity projects" moving forward, the massive success of Interceptor is an interesting development. While Netflix is keeping Interceptor's budget under wraps, the film features limited locations and, for the most part, no big-name actors, meaning it was likely a relatively inexpensive project in comparison to something like The Irishman.
As a first-time writer and director, Reilly's film hitting the #1 spot on Netflix around the world is no small feat. Interceptor's global success hints that a sequel is likely on the horizon, although it remains to be seen if any subsequent films will tap into what made the first one so popular. As with Netflix's Red Notice movie, Interceptor's strong viewership performance is also another indication that a film doesn't always need strong reviews in order to be a hit.