Ben Affleck’s Intense 108-Minute Netflix Thriller Officially Beats His 10-Year-Old Misfire

Ben Affleck’s recently directed, co-written, and starring thriller was released on Netflix, and it has officially dominated the streaming charts in two days. Animals, which stars Affleck alongside Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson, is now at #1 on the top 10 movies streamed on Netflix (via Flix Patrol).

With the release of the 2026 thriller flick, Ben Affleck officially beat his 10-year-old misfire, which was a completely disastrous movie with terrible ratings and reviews. Although sharing a similar premise, Live by Night, which was released in 2016, is widely considered to be Affleck’s lowest directorial point in his life.

Why Ben Affleck’s Live By Night Was a Complete Disaster

Sienna Miller and Ben Affleck in a still from Live By Night | Credits: RatPac-Dune Entertainment

Ben Affleck’s Live By Night was nowhere near a “bad” movie; however, there were several things that made the 2016 film an unenjoyable experience. For starters, Ben Affleck’s Joe Coughlin is meant to be a hardened gangster, but the film keeps softening him.

Affleck also reads as an awkward fit for the part since he looks and sounds like a modern guy in period clothes, which undercuts the genre’s menace. In fact, the emotional beats in the film didn’t land since the characters weren’t given enough importance to make them matter.

According to IMDb, the film was made with an estimated budget of $65 million and received a rating of 6.4/10 (with 34% on Rotten Tomatoes). Against a fairly large budget, the film only managed to earn $22 million gross worldwide, which signalled a loss of more than $40 million. However, it seems that Affleck has upped his game with the release of Animals, since both the movies share several core themes.

Animals and Live By Night Share Several Core Themes

Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington in Animals | Image via Netflix

Both films focus on a man who has a respectable surface with a rotten core. In Live by Night, Joe Coughlin builds a legitimate-looking empire of casinos, but ties it to rum-running and violence. In Animals, Ben Affleck is a mayoral candidate with a political campaign, but the reality is something different entirely.

Both films feature loved ones as the pressure point, the moment when everything goes to hell. The films also focus heavily on twists and turns with suspenseful plot twists that leave you questioning.

Although it has been two days since the release of Ben Affleck’s Animals, the film has managed to do quite well with its Netflix’s streaming performance.

Have you seen Affleck’s Animals yet? Let us know your thoughts about the film in the comments below.

Animals and Live by Night are available to stream on Netflix and Prime Video, respectively.