Jamie Foxx action movie rocketing up Netflix viewing chart

As of July 6, Jamie Foxx has the number one movie on Netflix in the US, as subscribers have been revisiting his 2013 action movie alongside Channing Tatum, White House Down. Considering the movie is 10 years old and wasn't part of what's new on Netflix in July, the surge for the movie has caught some by surprise.

If we had to hypothesize, we'd say there are a couple of contributing factors to White House Down's recent rise in popularity. The first being that Foxx is recovering from a health scare from earlier in 2023, so fans may be wanting to revisit some of the Oscar-winning actor's work. The other is that White House Down's journey to the top spot on the streaming service coincided with the Fourth of July holiday, so many may have wanted to watch the movie's fireworks as part of their celebration.

White House Down follows a Capitol policeman (Tatum), who is on a White House tour with his daughter when the building is taken over by a group of heavily armed paramilitary soldiers. It becomes up to him to protect the president, played by Foxx, from these invaders.

In addition to Tatum and Foxx, the movie stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, James Woods, Jimmi Simpson and Lance Reddick. It was directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) and written by James Vanderbilt (Murder Mystery 2, Scream VI).

The movie wasn't particularly well reviewed at the time of its release, receiving a 51% positive rating from critics, which made it "Rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes, though audiences rated it better at 62% positive.

It also came out in the same year as a similar movie, Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. While White House Down outgrossed Olympus Has Fallen at the box office, the latter has received two sequels while White House Down is a standalone movie.

Many Netflix viewers have been enjoying catching up with White House Down, with some even calling the movie a "masterpiece" and others saying that Foxx's President Sawyer is one of their favorite movie presidents.

The popularity of White House Down actually comes just a couple of weeks before Jamie Foxx has the Netflix original movie, They Cloned Tyrone, premiering on July 21.

White House Down is available to watch right now on Netflix (it is available on the streaming service in the UK, though the movie hasn't cracked the top 10 there). If you don't have a Netflix account, you can rent it via digital on-demand as well.

Be sure to also check out our list of the best shows on Netflix.