Denzel Washington’s HIt 2023 Action Movie Continues to Impress on Netflix Months After Its Debut

Denzel Washington scored a huge box office hit with The Equalizer 3, and that success has continued with the action movie climbing up the Netflix movie chart almost three months after its debut on the platform. Having delivered a strong theatrical performance last year, Washington’s threequel landed itself a ninth place position in Netflix’s Top 10 chart for the week ending March 31.

The Equalizer 3 brought Washington’s reboot of the Edward Woodward TV series to a close with a $191 million box office gross, on the back of its $70 million budget. The film scored the second-highest Labor Day opening weekend, and boasted the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the franchise with a solid 76% Tomatometer rating. For a man who does not do movie franchises, Washington’s run as Robert McCall became a huge success, and that is clear from the movie’s appearance among Netflix’s finest almost three months after its debut on the platform.

In The Equalizer 3, Washington’s McCall seems to have found peace in his life in Sicily, but of course that is soon chattered when his friends become the target of organized crime groups. This leads to McCall taking on his final mission, and ultimately rediscover the peace he has been looking for in his life. The film delivered a satisfying conclusion to Washington’s collaboration with director Antoine Fuqua, and although it originally seemed like the end of the franchise…there is always room for more.

Will The Equalizer 4 Happen?

Many film franchises have delivered what is marketed as their “final chapter” before returning several years later. While this has usually been reserved for the horror genre, in recent years many action movies, such as Mission: Impossible and John Wick, have promised an ending but immediately adopted a “never say never” attitude when asked about more movies.

The Equalizer is another franchise that falls into this trend. During interviews prior to the movie’s release, Fuqua stated that the third movie was definitely the end of Robert McCall’s story. But then the film was a success and that means that a fourth movie is now potentially on the cards. Speaking to Empire Magazine in February, writer Richard Wenk teased another outing for the action hero, saying:

“I felt it was over. It felt like the final chapter for this guy. I don’t know where he would go after that. Though…[laughs] I’m now tasked with figuring that out.”

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This followed on from comments made by Fuqua, in which he noted that since the release of the third movie he had been thinking about what another sequel would look like. This led to him revealing his idea of perhaps instead doing a prequel movie, with a de-aged Washington playing a younger McCall. He said:

“I definitely thought about it a lot. “Especially now with the new technology and the AI and all of that kind of stuff… Is there a story to be told about how [McCall] became this person — the younger version. I’ve had that conversation with [‘Equalizer’ screenwriter] Richard Wenk quite a bit.”