Paramount has been offloading movies even before it became common practice five years ago. For instance, before it sold its $200 million tent pole The Tomorrow War to Prime Video, the studio had already handed over the distribution rights to The Cloverfield Paradox and Annihilation to Netflix. Unlike the third Cloverfield, which earned poor reviews across the board, Annihilation sparked a more intellectual debate. The movie was written and directed by Alex Garland as a follow-up to his earlier hit in the sci-fi genre, Ex Machina. Annihilation received a theatrical release domestically and in China, but debuted in most international markets on Netflix. Now, it’s set to land on the Paramount+ streaming service on December 1.
Based on the acclaimed novel by Jeff VanderMeer, the movie featured Natalie Portman as a grieving scientist and former soldier, who is sent into a mysterious cordoned-off area known as the Shimmer. The movie dealt with themes of depression and self-destruction, and opened to excellent reviews. Annihilation now holds a “certified fresh” 88% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre thrills with an impressively ambitious — and surprisingly strange — exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits roll.” Collider’s review at the time described the movie as “wildly ambitious, occasionally alienating, and consummately perplexing.”
Alex Garland Is Putting Together His Biggest Movie Yet
As with most Garland films, however, the audience response was certainly lacking. Annihilation holds a 67% audience rating on RT, which is in the same range as those of his newer movies — the horror film Men is sitting at a 40% audience score, while Civil War holds a 69%. The streak broke recently with the war movie Warfare, which debuted theatrically earlier this year. The movie underperformed at the box office, but earned a 92% critics’ score and a 93% audience score on RT. Annihilation, on the other hand, grossed over $30 million domestically back in 2018, against a reported budget of $55 million. Garland is now putting together his biggest film, an adaptation of the video game Elden Ring. You can experience Annihilation for yourself on Paramount+ beginning December 1, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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February 23, 2018
- Runtime
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115 Minutes
- Director
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Alex Garland
- Writers
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Alex Garland, Jeff VanderMeer
