Catch Denzel Washington’s Forgotten $186M Blockbuster Before It Leaves Streaming

Some crime thrillers fade after their theatrical run. This Denzel Washington movie did the opposite, becoming a durable favorite built around a robbery that keeps its cards close to its chest. Its time on Netflix is now running short, giving subscribers one more chance to revisit Spike Lee’s slick 2006 heist movie.

Denzel Washington’s Inside Man is leaving Netflix next month

Inside Man is scheduled to depart Netflix on October 1, according to What’s on Netflix.

A bank heist quickly turns into a high-stakes chess match in Spike Lee’s crime thriller, with Denzel Washington’s NYPD detective Keith Frazier trying to stay one step ahead of Clive Owen’s Dalton Russell and his crew. Jodie Foster plays Madeleine White, a powerful fixer pursuing her own interests, while Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor round out the cast.

Lee brought Russell Gewirtz’s screenplay to the screen, with Brian Grazer producing for Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, and 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. The $45 million production did not just break even at the box office; it hauled in roughly $186 million worldwide, becoming a solid commercial win.

Nearly two decades later, Inside Man still has plenty of juice left. More than 400,000 IMDb ratings have pushed the crime thriller to a 7.6/10, while Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 86% Tomatometer score and an 85% audience score. Much of that staying power comes from Spike Lee’s lively direction, a great cast, and a heist setup that toys with familiar heist-movie formulas.

Fans eventually got another Inside Man story, but Spike Lee’s planned sequel never made it across the finish line. After years of trying to get Inside Man 2 moving, Lee said in 2011 that the project had hit a financing wall. The franchise finally returned in 2019 with Inside Man: Most Wanted, a separate follow-up released directly to video and streaming, with Aml Ameen taking the lead instead of Denzel Washington.

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