Alan Ritchson & Henry Cavill's R-Rated Action Thriller With 810 Million Minutes Viewed On Netflix Is A Must-Watch

Published Oct 6, 2026, 9:47 AM EDT

Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Alan Ritchson and Henry Cavill are the two main stars of an R-rated action thriller movie that has racked up an impressive amount of views on Netflix, and it is a must-watch not only for fans of the actors, but also the genre. Ritchson and Cavill have become two of the faces of the action genre. That said, on different mediums.

Ritchson is most well-known for leading Prime Video's Reacher, one of the biggest action thriller series on streaming. Reacher is so popular that the show has already been renewed for two more seasons, with Reacher season 5 currently in production. Additionally, it spawned a shared universe on Prime Video, with Ritchson returning as Jack Reacher for the Neagley spin-off, another #1 streaming hit.

In terms of action movies, Ritchson has also found success with streaming releases like Netflix's War Machine and Prime Video's Playdate. As for Cavill, the actor played Superman in DC's old DCEU timeline. Cavill has also starred in one of the best action movies of all time, Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible – Fallout. As August Walker, he played one of the franchise's most memorable villains.

Cavill's action-packed Netflix fantasy series, The Witcher, also serves as a showcase of the actor's physical prowess. As such, uniting Cavill and Ritchson onscreen was always going to be a success. While that was not exactly the case on the big screen, as their team-up, Guy Ritchie's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, was not a box office hit, it has proven so on streaming, becoming a Netflix must-watch.

Guy Ritchie's The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare Has Racked Up Netflix Views

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare arrived on Netflix on September 16 in the United States. In its first week on the streaming service, the R-rated action thriller led by Ritchson and Cavill became Netflix's 7th most-watched movie worldwide, according to official Netflix data. The film was the most-watched movie on Netflix in just one country that week, the US. Ritchie's The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare racked up 6.8 million hours viewed on Netflix globally that week. The action thriller had a very similar performance on Netflix's global chart for the week from September 21 to September 27.

As Netflix's data shows, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare once again ranked 7th on Netflix around the world on the movies chart, bringing in 6.7 million hours viewed, and being Netflix's most popular movie in the United States. As such, the film has managed to put on a strong and consistent showing on the streaming service, especially when you compare the Guy Ritchie action movie's performance to the #1 on the chart in its debut week. That would be the Tyler Perry comedy Why Did I Get Married Again?, which fell from 1st to 8th the following week.

Why The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare Is A Must-Watch On Netflix

Image via Everett Collection

With both weeks put together, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare amassed 810 million minutes viewed on Netflix worldwide, and when the streamer releases the data for the week from September 28 to October 4, that number could enter the billion range. That is an impressive performance for a film that only grossed $29.8 million worldwide against a reported budget of $60 million in theaters. Despite its poor box office, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is worth watching on Netflix, as it is an action-packed release made engaging by fan-favorite actors and Ritchie's signature flair.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare has proven itself a hit with viewers not only through Netflix's viewership data, but also in terms of reviews. While it sits at a fine 68% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 168 reviews, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare stands at a near-perfect 91% audience score. This is a crowd-pleaser all the way through. Young Sherlock's Hero Fiennes Tiffin and a great supporting cast also join the physically imposing Cavill and Ritchson duo, and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare delivers on its promise of unhinged, R-rated action as a covert team kills Nazis in World War II.