Ana de Armas and Sydney Sweeney might be two of the most popular actresses around right now. But their first project together was a major box office flop. The pair starred alongside some other notable A-listers, including Vanessa Kirby, Jude Law, and Daniel Brühl, with none other than Ron Howard in the director’s chair. But even that wasn’t enough to stop the film from flopping in theaters. However, that movie, Eden, just landed on streaming, and it’s finding a second life with audiences.
Eden is now streaming on Prime Video, and the R-rated thriller has redeemed its poor box office. Eden is currently the third most popular movie on Prime Video globally. Eden first premiered in 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie garnered decent reviews from its premiere, including one from MovieWeb’s Murjani Rawls. Their review praised Howard’s directing and the film’s “intelligent” opening. However, “as soon as the stakes are set and lines are drawn, Eden escapes Howard and writer Noah Pink’s hands like a runaway train with no destination, ultimately ending in disappointment.”
The film is based on the true story of European settlers on one of the Galápagos Islands in the 1930s. Kirby, Sweeney, De Armas, Bruhl, and Law all star as settlers on the island who slowly vie for control and fight for survival against the elements and each other. The official synopsis reads:
“Director Ron Howard’s Eden unravels the shocking true story of a group of disillusioned outsiders who abandon modern society in search of a new beginning. Settling on a remote, uninhabited island, their utopian dream quickly unravels as they discover that the greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other. What follows is a chilling descent into chaos where tensions spiral, desperation takes hold, and a twisted power struggle leads to betrayal, violence, and the deaths of half the colony.”
‘Eden’ Was a Very Divisive Flop
Now that Eden is on streaming, more audiences are diving into the tense R-rated thriller. The film holds a decent audience score of 73%. User reviews range from five-star ratings, hailing it as the best movie of the year, to a one out of five dud that wasted their time. “Movie was fantastic. I didn’t know what to expect going into the film, but it piqued my interest as it progressed. Ana de Armas’ performance was sexually provocative and exceptional. Sydney Sweeney played her role phenomenally, and Jude Law as the crazed doctor was superb,” read one five-star review. However, a viewer who wasn’t so content with the movie wrote, “Exciting real-life story that makes a boring movie, certainly not 2 hours long material.”
While audiences were slightly more in favor of the film, critics maligned the movie. It holds a poor 58% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Like MovieWeb’s own review, other critics felt the film started strong, before losing the plot in the final act. Those negative reviews also hampered the film’s box office, as it grossed a measly $2.7 million worldwide against a budget of $55 million, making it a major flop.
- Release Date
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August 22, 2025
- Runtime
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120 minutes