Image via Prime Video
Published Feb 7, 2026, 12:00 PM EST
Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
No two stars dominate Prime Video quite like Alan Ritchson and Jason Statham. For the most part, though, the action icons have thrived on separate sides of the streaming service. Ritchson, of course, broke out with the ever-popular Reacher, which set a record for the most-watched returning season of a Prime Video series when Season 3 debuted to 54.6 million views in 19 days. Statham, meanwhile, has been a fixture on the charts thanks to a wide selection of movies on the platform, including last year’s A Working Man. However, the former crossed back over to the movie side last year thanks to his new Kevin James team-up, Playdate.
Released in November, Playdate is a classic buddy action comedy with an unlikely pair in the recently-unemployed accountant, Brian (James), and charming, hyper-athletic stay-at-home dad, Jeff (Ritchson). Brian agrees to a playdate with Jeff and to get to know the new dad in the neighborhood, and have their sons bond over the typical playdate activities, like tossing around a football or awkwardly taking in the attractions of an indoor playground. However, he soon learns that there is much more to his new friend than meets the eye when they're thrust into a fight for survival against a group of mercenaries sent to hunt down Jeff. With zero skills to take down the soldiers or match Jeff's training, Brian must navigate an unreal set of obstacles with his son to help unravel a conspiracy that has everything to do with his odd new friend and his strangely strong son. The exciting premise didn't translate to good reviews, as shown by the 23% Rotten Tomatoes score, but that didn't stop it from dominating the Prime Video streaming charts.
Now, nearly three months later, Brian and Jeff have returned to the charts once again. Playdate surged back to seventh place in the U.S. this week, which was just enough to overtake Statham's shark-infested sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, in eighth. That's no small feat considering the bombastic sci-fi actioner has been a common fixture among the film rankings since it was added to the platform on January 1. It is, however, a testament to Ritchson's prevalence on the platform and the more positive, if still underwhelming, audience perception of the film at a 57% score. The newfound momentum wasn't nearly enough to top A Working Man in third place, though, so even though he lost the movie streaming battle, he's far from losing the war.
Alan Ritchson Will Soon Appear in a Massive Netflix Action Movie
Ritchson is next set to take his services to Netflix for what the actor himself has called "the biggest movie" the streamer has ever had — War Machine. The first trailer recently confirmed the sheer scale of the sci-fi epic, which casts the towering actor as an engineer simply known as "81." One of the last Ranger recruits from boot camp, he and his fellow soldiers are tasked with standing against an otherworldly threat invading Earth. Although he's already familiar with the horrors of war, the conflict introduces him to a fresh new terror in a desperate fight for survival. It's set to premiere on March 6, with Dennis Quaid, Jai Courtney, Esai Morales, Stephan James, Keiynan Lonsdale, and Daniel Webber joining him in the fray.
Playdate and Meg 2: The Trench are now streaming on Prime Video. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the biggest films coming to and leaving streaming throughout the year.
Release Date November 12, 2025
Director Luke Greenfield
English (US) ·