Channing Tatum's Blink Twice: From Box Office Flop To Streaming Hit

Two years after it flopped at the box office, Channing Tatum’s cult thriller Blink Twice is having a moment as it climbs the streaming charts on HBO Max. Blink Twice was the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz, who co-wrote the screenplay with E.T. Feigenbaum. But, while it was well-received by critics with a “fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score of 74%, Blink Twice was a box office disappointment.

On a production budget of $20 million, Blink Twice opened to just $7.3 million at the domestic box office. It just about managed to leg it out to profitability, but it was nowhere near as big a hit as these stars and this genre usually deliver. But, despite that disappointing theatrical run, Blink Twice has been a big hit on streaming.

What Is Blink Twice About?

Blink Twice stars Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat as two cocktail waitresses who meet an eccentric billionaire tech mogul named Slater King while catering an exclusive event. Slater spontaneously invites the two women to his private island, where they enjoy a few days of drinking, lounging in the sun, and taking powerful hallucinogens. But then, things take a sinister turn.

As you might imagine, the disgraced billionaire CEO who was forced to step down from his company due to inappropriate behavior does not have the best intentions with his female guests. When Shawkat’s Jess goes missing, and no one seems to remember that she even existed, Ackie’s Frida does a little digging to get to the truth.

We’ve seen a lot of these all-is-not-what-it-seems thrillers in recent years. We saw similar stories of a seemingly quaint community with a dark underbelly in Opus, Midsommar, The Menu, Ready or Not, and, of course, Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning social thriller Get Out. Blink Twice is no Get Out or Midsommar, but it’s much better than Opus.

Blink Twice's Incredible Cast Makes Up For A Derivative Script

Ultimately, Blink Twice is let down by an unoriginal, underdeveloped script. There’s not a ton of character development once they get to the island, and the plot falls apart if you think about it too much. The first half of the film has a lot of sunlounging sequences that do nothing to deepen the characters’ relationships, so the second half doesn’t land as intended.

But Blink Twice makes up for its derivative script with an incredible ensemble cast. Tatum, Ackie, and Shawkat are three of the best actors working today, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg; Christian Slater and Kyle MacLachlan are in the movie, Geena Davis plays Slater’s assistant, Haley Joel Osment plays a former child star (appropriately), Andor’s Adria Arjona plays a reality TV star, and Red Rocket’s Simon Rex plays the chef.