Netflix's New Bank Heist Movie Slides Its Way to No. 1

Army of Thieves, a prequel to Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, has been a success for Netflix since its release on Oct. 29. The movie ranks as number three on the Top 10 Movies in the U.S. Today chart, and number five on the overall Top 10 in the U.S. chart. The bank heist movie still holds the top spot in several countries, including star Matthias Schweighöfer's native Germany.

Army of Thieves was directed by Schweighöfer, who also stars as Ludwig Dieter, whose real name is Sebastian Schlecht-Wöhnert. Schweighöfer also played the role in Army of The Dead. Dave Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, and Hiroyuki Sanada also appear in both films. In Army of the Dead, Europe still hasn't seen the effects of the zombie outbreak that began in the U.S. Sebastian is a YouTuber who makes videos about safecracking, and is enlisted to join a group to rob three banks. Nathalie Emmanuel, Suby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, and Jonathan Cohen also star. Snyder and Shay Hatten wrote the story.

The Army of the Dead franchise kicked off with the main film, which was released on Netflix in May after years in development. The franchise also includes Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, an animated series that will be released in the spring. Snyder's sequel, Planet of the Dead, is now in development. Netflix also released a documentary on the making of the first film, Creating an Army of the Dead.

Since Army of Thieves was released after Army of the Dead, some might think the prequel was quickly put in development to capitalize on Dead's success. But that wasn't the case. In a Variety interview, Snyder said he was always interested in making a prequel telling Ludwig's story. Army of Thieves was even in production while Army of the Dead was still in the works. "Part of it was the desire to explore the mythological roots of the different safes and understand what the Gõtterdämmerung was all about, and also because Dieter is so interesting and to find out why he loves safes," Snyder explained. "That was the origin of it. There are a lot of fun Easter eggs, and we had a great time planting the seeds of the Army universe in that movie."

In the future, Snyder hopes he can make movies in other genres set within the Army of the Dead world. Instead of just doing a straight zombie movie with these characters each time, he and his collaborators could see how they would respond in other situations. The format for these movies might be different, but there will still be zombies.

"It's rare, and maybe unprecedented, that there's a cinematic universe where the cinematic part of it is front and center," Snyder told Variety. "The deconstruction of different genres is actually part of the way. It's very self-aware. I think that we as an audience and as filmmakers are ready and educated. We're standing by to have fun with the genres we love and deconstruct them, almost from a self-aware cinematic angle, which makes this universe of movies really interesting. It's movies for people who love movies, without letting anyone off the hook as far as the drama and suspense. And I promise there will be zombies."