(TC) Channing Tatum & Rachel McAdams’ Forgotten Romance Movie Finds Netflix Success 12 Years Later

Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum’s forgotten romance movie, The Vow, finds new success on Netflix. The Vow which is inspired by the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, follows a husband who, after his wife suffers a serious car accident and severe memory loss, must work hard to win her heart again. The cast also includes Sam Neill, Scott Speedman, Jessica Lange, and Jessica McNamee in supporting roles.

Now, 12 years after its release, McAdams and Tatum’s forgotten romance movie has found new success on Netflix. For the week of January 29–February 4, The Vow was watched for 6.6 million hours and received 3.8 million total views. The movie ranked in seventh place for the week between Minions at #6 (in its third week) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie at #8, which is enjoying its 10th straight week in Netflix’s Global Top 10.

Why The Vow Has Been Forgotten

Led by two genre regulars, The Vow was certainly a popular and successful film at the time of its release in 2012. It opened #1 at the box office over the Valentine’s Day weekend and went on to make $196 million worldwide against a $30 million budget. At the time of its release, The Vow was the eighth highest-grossing romantic drama movie made since 1980.

Love stories withstand the test of time, making us laugh, sing, or cry, and the 2010s were a particularly great decade for romance movies.

However, despite its commercial success, The Vow received largely negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 32% score with a Critics Consensus that reads “Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams do their best with what they’re given, but The Vow is too shallow and familiar to satisfy the discriminating date-night filmgoer.” Audiences received the film more favorably, resulting in a 63% score.

This negative to lukewarm reception is largely the reason why The Vow, and many romantic dramas like it, have largely been forgotten. The film was compared unfavorably to McAdams and Tatum’s past movies, The Notebook and Dear John, which were both based on the Nicholas Sparks novels of the same name. While these types of romantic dramas certainly had their heyday during the 2010s, they have largely fallen out of favor since then, though perhaps The Vow‘s success on Netflix could bring them back.