Eight years after critics dismissed it and tragedy poisoned its release, Bruce Willis’s Death Wish has resurfaced on the global streaming charts. The film, which opened on March 2, 2018, to a storm of negative reviews and political controversy, now holds the No. 9 spot on MGM+’s worldwide Top 10 movies list — a placement that says something specific about how platforms recover value from titles the news cycle once made untouchable.
Death Wish’s Current Position on the MGM+ Chart
According to Screen Rant, Death Wish sits at No. 9 on the MGM+ global Top 10 as of August 18, 2026, placing it just one slot below Liam Neeson’s Cold Storage (2026) at No. 8. That pairing is worth noting: Death Wish shares chart real estate with a brand-new theatrical release from one of action cinema’s most bankable names. For a film that debuted in 2018, the company it keeps is striking.
The global reach, though, is uneven. Death Wish appears in the Top 10 overall on MGM+ in only one individual country: New Zealand. Its global chart presence reflects aggregate viewing across territories rather than dominance in any single major market. American audiences wanting to watch it face a separate path entirely. Death Wish is not available on MGM+ in the United States; it can be rented or purchased on Prime Video and other platforms from $3.99.
Streaming and the Larger Fight for a Free Evening
The Loterijuguru editorial team, which follows Lithuania’s online entertainment landscape, sees the renewed interest in Death Wish as a good example of how crowded the entertainment market has become. An older film suddenly climbing the global streaming charts is more than just an unexpected result of an algorithm. It is another option competing for the limited amount of free time people have in the evening.
Streaming is only one part of that competition. In Lithuania, people also spend their free time on activities such as online lotteries, alongside gaming, social media and other forms of digital entertainment. https://loterijuguru.lt/ is one source covering the local lottery space. From the editorial team’s perspective, the wider point is simple: every new film, game or digital activity is competing for the same few hours of attention people have after work and other daily responsibilities.
How a Poisoned Release Made a Clear Run Impossible in 2018
The original theatrical moment for Death Wish was, by any measure, badly timed. The film had already been delayed once after the October 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas. When it finally opened on March 2, 2018, it arrived approximately two weeks after the shooting at Parkland High School. The cultural atmosphere made dispassionate engagement with a vigilante revenge film close to impossible.
Critics were not inclined toward charity. The film holds an 18% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers calling it a formulaic remake that lacks the raw edge and conviction of the 1974 original. Director Eli Roth vehemently denied that the film promoted right-wing or pro-gun messages, a charge that critics and commentators levelled at it repeatedly in the weeks surrounding release. Whether or not that characterization was fair, it became part of the film’s public identity at exactly the moment it needed audiences to simply watch it.
Why Streaming Gives the Film a Second Argument
Separated from that context, Death Wish makes a case that its 2018 release never had the chance to make cleanly. Eli Roth directed from a script by Joe Carnahan, and the film is a remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson original. Willis plays a surgeon who, after his home is broken into and his family attacked, sets out to find the men responsible. The premise is elemental genre filmmaking, and the execution drew a cast with genuine credentials: Emmy nominee Vincent D’Onofrio, Oscar nominee Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris of Breaking Bad, and Emmy nominee Camila Morrone all appear in supporting roles.
That cast did not rescue the film from critics in 2018, but audiences responded differently then, and the pattern has continued. Death Wish holds a 70% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a figure that sits 52 percentage points above the critics score. Even in its original theatrical run, the film earned $55 million at the box office against a $30 million budget, demonstrating that real demand existed even when the surrounding conversation was hostile.
Streaming removes the conversation. A viewer browsing MGM+ on a Tuesday evening encounters the film without the editorial weight of 2018 attached to it. There is no news cycle to load first. The 52-point gap between what critics thought and what general audiences have consistently rated it is probably the most precise indicator of why this title finds new life once that weight is gone. Critics were measuring the film against a particular cultural moment. Audiences, now as then, appear largely to be measuring it as a genre film — and finding it watchable enough to keep it in the global top ten.
