Guy Ritchie and Henry Cavill’s Epic WWII Movie Proves Why It Was Always Meant for Streaming

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Published Mar 17, 2026, 1:42 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Ahead of their third film together, director Guy Ritchie and star Henry Cavill can celebrate the sustained success of their last collaboration. The movie underperformed in its theatrical run, failing to recoup its reported budget. Nor was it able to start a franchise, like most of Ritchie's previous attempts. However, it has had an uncommonly solid post-release run on home video, proving that certain movies simply find their audience through different avenues. This has certainly become more apparent in the streaming era, where audiences seem to have a clear idea of what they want to watch in theaters and at home. Ritchie and Cavill's first film together, The Man from UNCLE, had a similar run, underperforming in theaters and failing to spawn a sequel.

Their second movie is the one that recently passed a major home-video milestone. It was released theatrically in 2024, grossing less than $30 million worldwide against a reported budget of $60 million. The movie was co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, known for the iconic blockbusters such as Top Gun: Maverick, F1, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It received mixed-to-positive reviews and is now sitting at a 68% critics' score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus describes it as "a high-octane action flick that's heavy on spectacle if not suspense." However, the film's "Verified Hot" 91% audience score seems to be the key to its success.

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Guy Ritchie and Henry Cavill's Third Movie Is Only a Few Weeks Away

We're talking, of course, about the World War II-era action film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which was inspired by a true espionage story. According to FlixPatrol, the movie has now spent 170 days on the domestic streaming charts, with a recent resurgence on Starz. Besides Cavill, the film also featured Reacher icon Alan Ritchson, as well as Eiza González, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, and Hero Fiennes Tiffin, with whom Ritchie recently collaborated on Prime Video's Young Sherlock. Ritchie and Cavill's third film together is the action-thriller In the Grey, which recently released its first trailer. Also featuring González and Jake Gyllenhaal, it's set for a theatrical release on May 15. Ritchie has another movie lined up for later in the year — the dark comedy Wife & Dog, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rosamund Pike. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.