One of the Best Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century Is Back on HBO Max and Dominating

3 weeks ago 19

Published Mar 18, 2026, 9:54 AM 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.

While audiences around the world wait for the stars to align — it seems like they finally have! — and for director Matt Reeves to get cracking on The Batman Part II, they seem to be revisiting his earlier hits. These earlier hits were the ones that proved Reeves could handle massive budgets and deliver uncommonly intelligent tentpoles that didn't necessarily adhere to conventions. Ironically, one of his most acclaimed hits follows the Campbellian ideal almost to the T. But it positively defies any sort of label. It was a slow-burn, unlike the fast-paced action films that viewers have now become accustomed to; it proudly proclaimed its anti-war themes, which is a rather timely stance to take these days. More so than the Avatar movies, it came close to convincing the world that performance capture could actually result in major awards consideration in the near future.

The movie in question marked Reeves' second mega-budget directorial effort. He broke out as part of J.J. Abrams' troupe back in the 1990s, before delivering the hit that would become a kind of blueprint for Bad Robot: Cloverfield. Backed by one of the most successful viral marketing campaigns ever, Cloverfield grossed more than $170 million worldwide against a reported budget of $30 million. It spawned a franchise that had a genuine impact on pop culture. Reeves followed Cloverfield with Let Me In, a remake of the acclaimed Swedish psychological horror film Let the Right One In. The movie earned excellent reviews but underperformed at the box office. However, there was no looking back for Reeves after Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which grossed more than $700 million worldwide against a reported budget of $235 million and established Reeves as one of the most respected directors of big-screen spectacles.

Put These Shows on Ice — The Collider TV Quiz!

Tomorrow is the last day of winter, so let's bundle up one last time for a wintry mix of some of the coldest television settings we've ever seen.

Matt Reeves' Second Tentpole Holds a 94% Score on Rotten Tomatoes

According to FlixPatrol, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is among the most-watched movies on the global HBO Max charts, along with its 2017 follow-up, War for the Planet of the Apes. The second film combined biblical scope with the intimacy of a parent-child relationship in the vein of Children of Men, Logan, and The Last of Us. It featured a returning Andy Serkis as the ape Caesar, with many calling for him to be considered for an Oscar nomination. War for the Planet of the Apes now holds a "Certified Fresh" 94% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes; it grossed $490 million worldwide against a reported budget of $190 million. The movie was followed by a soft reboot titled Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is also charting globally on HBO Max. Reeves, meanwhile, is set to enter production on the long-awaited sequel to his 2022 hit The Batman. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.