Over five years after bombing with critics and at the box office, Michael Fassbender's The Snowman is enjoying a sudden rise in popularity on Netflix. Based on the seventh book in Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole series, the film centers on an alcoholic-yet-brilliant inspector in Norway who tries to solve a series of bizarre killings in which the murderer leaves behind the eponymous figure. Fassbender led the ensemble cast of The Snowman that also featured Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Val Kilmer, J.K. Simmons, Toby Jones and Chloë Sevigny, among others.
As first noted by UPROXX, one Michael Fassbender movie is dominating Netflix's trending charts in spite of its terrible legacy. The Snowman, which premiered on the streaming platform on April 16, has quickly shot up the charts within its first week of debuting on Netflix, consistently appearing in its Top Ten and even holding the No. 1 spot for various periods of time.
How The Snowman Went So Wrong
Heading into its development, The Snowman had everything going in its favor to be a smash hit. Nesbø's Harry Hole novels were all bestselling hits, Martin Scorsese had been attached to direct at one point and producers Working Title Films were reportedly looking to build a similar series of films as the Morgan Freeman-led Alex Cross adaptations from the early 2000s. Even after Scorsese's departure, The Snowman still had potential behind the camera with Let the Right One In's Tomas Alfredson signing on to direct.
This potential would fall apart during production on The Snowman, however, with Alfredson explaining that the pre-production cycle was very rushed due to funding and talent scheduling and that filming itself suffered similar issues. The director has even previously revealed that up to 15 percent of the film's script was left unfilmed, resulting in he and his team having to piece together the story they shot as best as they could.
Critics were quick to notice the scattered nature of The Snowman's story, with reviews not only calling it clichéd but also incomprehensible, a sentiment echoed by many audiences as the film proved a box office disappointment, grossing just $43.1 million against its $35 million production budget and scrapping future plans. It's unclear why the film is enjoying a sudden rise in popularity on Netflix over five years after it first hit theaters, though with murder mysteries on the rise in recent years, some may have viewed the film as one that flew under their radars when it first came out.
Source: UPROXX