Lanterns’ Hype Is Driving a Massive Streaming Surge for Ryan Reynolds’ ‘Green Lantern’
As the DCU’s Lanterns series flies high, viewers are flocking to check out Ryan Reynolds’ forgotten Green Lantern movie from over a decade ago.
When it released back in 2011, Green Lantern quickly became one of those movies that everyone unanimously decided to quell from our memories. In fact, Ryan Reynolds himself has frequently poked fun at and mocked the movie — and for good reason. A messy plot with a glut of dodgy CGI, the movie was a major critical flop, currently standing at a mere 25% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.5/10 on IMDb. Green Lantern was the only major DC movie released back in 2011, and it debuted at a time when Marvel movies were flying high, spanning everything from Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, to the 20th Century Fox release of X-Men: First Class.
Nowadays, the DC Universe is a little more stable. The franchise was rebooted by James Gunn and Peter Safran in 2023. It kicked off with the animated series Creature Commandos in 2024, then hit the big screen with David Corenswet’s Superman in 2025. Damon Lindelof’s series Lanterns is now airing at HBO Max, and it’s doing pretty well. The series is dominating the charts, as reported by Flix Patrol.
As of August 31st, 2026, Lanterns was the #1 series on HBO Max, ranking higher than House of the Dragon and Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. Naturally, this was expected, but what is surprising is when you look at the movie rankings, where Green Lantern (2011) has managed to rank in the top 10 in both the United States, currently placed 8th. It’s also noteworthy that Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) has broken into the top 10 in 10th place. Check out the full Top 10 for August 31st, 2026 down below:
1. – Normal
2. +1 The Drama
3. -1 Practical Magic
4. – Mother Mary
5. – Mortal Kombat II
6. – No Sudden Move
7. – It
8. – Green Lantern
9. – Sicario
10. – Green Lantern: Beware My Power
Has Green Lantern (2011) aged like fine wine? Not really, but at least Ryan Reynolds can revel in the knowledge that it’s not quite as bad as George Clooney’s portrayal of Batman (depending on whom you ask).
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen (2019) is also trending on social media.
In addition, while it has not yet broken into streaming rankings, Watchmen (2019) has been trending on social media. Of course, Lanterns creator Damon Lindelof also co-created the Watchmen series, which has become a cult classic in the years since it aired. Watchmen is a spiritual sequel to the legendary graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Lanterns is shining the green light on old movies and shows. If you were to watch one, we’d like to hope you’d choose Watchmen over Green Lantern.
‘Lanterns’ is currently streaming on HBO Max. Are you enjoying it? Tell us in the comments down below!
