Will Smith’s Sci-Fi Threequel That Left Paul Thomas Anderson in Tears Is a Streaming Success in America

The recent comedy reboot The Naked Gun might not have earned the box office success higher-ups would’ve wanted, but, thanks to Liam Neeson‘s central performance and a hilarious script, it received critical acclaim. When the movie finally made its way to streaming, it became an instant hit, and, at the time of writing, continues to sit atop the Paramount+ streaming charts. However, elsewhere in the top ten are some titles you might not expect, such as a Will Smith-led threequel that shockingly left One Battle After AnotherdirectorPaul Thomas Anderson in floods of tears.

That movie is the sci-fi flick Men in Black 3, which sees Smith and co-star Tommy Lee Jones reprise their suited, booted, alien-catching agents for a third time. Currently, Men in Black 3 is one of the ten most-streamed movies on Paramount+ in the U.S. Alongside the first two entries in the series and the aforementioned Naked Gun, Men in Black 3 joins an eye-catching list of other titles proving popular on the platform. This includes the smash-hit legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick, Jack Quaid‘s underrated superhero movie Novocaine, Josh Hartnett’s Fight or Flight, and much more. For those yet to see Men in Black 3, here’s a look at the film’s synopsis:

“Even though agents J and K have been protecting the Earth from alien scum for many years, J still does not know much about his gruff partner. However, J soon gets an unexpected chance to find out what makes K tick when an alien criminal called Boris the Animal escapes, goes back to 1969, and kills K. With the fate of the planet at stake, J goes back in time and teams up with K’s younger self to put things right.”

‘Men in Black 3’ Was a Box Office Hit

In total, the Men in Black franchise has earned just shy of $2 billion in global box office revenue. The biggest contributor to this is Men in Black 3, which took $654 million at the worldwide box office from a production budget of $215 million. Split between a domestic haul of just $179 million and a huge $475 million from overseas markets, the film shot to the top of the box office charts upon its May 25, 2012, debut, eventually finishing the year as the tenth-highest-grossing film globally.

Men in Black 3 is available to stream now on Paramount+.