Ben Affleck’s 2010 crime thriller The Town is unexpectedly dominating Netflix’s Top 10 lists. Subscribers must be feeling nostalgic for the decade-old movie, which also stars Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively among others. The Town held the No. 5 spot on one of Netflix’s Top 10 movies list this weekend, according to a report by Yahoo News.
Netflix now has a dedicated site to track the most-watched movies and TV shows in its catalog in different places and at different time periods, and the insights offered can be interesting. The Town was added to Netflix on Saturday, Jan. 1 and briefly joined the ranks of its top movies, though now it is nowhere to be seen on the lists. The R-rated thriller had a similar trajectory in the pop culture zeitgeist at the time of its release – flaring with critical praise and popularity but then disappearing from the conversation surprisingly quickly.
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The Town is based on a 2004 novel called Prince of Thieves by author Chuck Hogan. It was adapted for the screen by Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard, and the movie was directed by Affleck himself. It is about a group of childhood friends turned bank robbers in Boston who set out to get the score of a lifetime by robbing Fenway Park.
The Town was quite successful at the box office, earning a total of $154 million worldwide on a production budget of $37 million. It also did well in home media, with multiple versions released in the years after it premiered and lots of interest in deleted scenes, audio commentary and an infamous alternate ending.
Critically speaking, The Town was even more successful – at the time of this writing, it has 92 percent positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.7 out of 10. Critics at the time saw it as a monumental accomplishment for Affleck as a burgeoning director. Many praised the performances as well.
The Town was nominated for many awards in its year, including Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Jeremy Renner as best supporting actor. It won two awards from the National Board of Review – Top Ten Films of 2010 and Best Acting by an Ensemble Cast. However, for better or worse many fans filed The Town away in their minds alongside other Boston-based crime dramas and practically forgot about it in the shuffle.
The Town is streaming now on Netflix for those that haven’t re-watched it yet and are interested in revisiting the hype. For the director’s cut and alternate ending, however, you will need to purchase The Town: Ultimate Collector’s Edition on DVD and Blu-ray.
