A Viking Saga That Failed at the Box Office Is Rising Again on Streaming

Robert Eggers’ latest film, a historical epic called The Northman, may have failed to connect in theaters, but it looks like the film has seemingly found an audience, at least internationally, on HBO Max. While the service doesn’t offer the movie in the United States, according to FlixPatrol, The Northman is number one globally on the HBO Max streaming service.

The Northman stars Alexander Skarsgard as Viking Prince Amleth, who seeks revenge for his father, portrayed by Ethan Hawke. The film features a star-studded cast, with it also featuring Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, and Bjork.

Interestingly enough, the story that The Northman is based on is actually the very same story that Shakespeare was inspired by with his play Hamlet; if you remove the H from the beginning of the name and add it to the end, you get the name Amleth. This also means that The Lion King is partially based on the same story as The Northman, as Shakespeare’s Hamlet partly inspired the animated movie.

Robert Eggers’ The Northman did not do well at the box office, with it not even reaching $70 million on a budget that is somewhere between $70 million and $90 million. However, the movie has found an audience on streaming and VOD services like iTunes, meaning it likely did not lose as much money as the box office may make it seem.

Robert Eggers is an acclaimed director, with him also being responsible for other critically acclaimed films such as The Witch and The Lighthouse, which along with The Northman, all have good Rotten Tomatoes scores among critics.

For those interested in checking out The Northman, though, the film is obviously available internationally on HBO Max, but for those stateside, the movie is available on Amazon Prime for no extra cost.