How Do Film Fans Feel About Denzel Washington?
We used Ranker Insights to see what Denzel Washington’s fans think about the actor’s most popular films over his decades-long career
Hollywood has a long history of learning, then forgetting about, then relearning the law of diminishing returns — the idea that each successive sequel to or reboot of a popular movie will bring fewer and fewer people into theaters. That rule seemed to go out the window for much of the 21st century, as a few huge franchises seemed to bring in more money with each installment. For instance, 10 years after the release of the first movie, the eighth and final film of the Harry Potter series — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 — made the most at the box office. Now, however, the soaring profits that defined franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are slowly falling back to earth. So why is a traditional action series like The Equalizer making more money than ever?
While Sony Pictures certainly knows that the Equalizer franchise is no MCU, the studio did have good reason to invest in a third movie: The Equalizer 2 ended up having a stronger opening weekend at the box office than the original. But that was back in 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the film industry into newly precarious territory, which makes it all the more surprising that five years later, The Equalizer 3 netted $34.6 million over the Labor Day weekend to become the week’s #1 movie. A lot of factors are at play behind the threequel’s success, including an overall increase in theater attendance that has made this the strongest summer for the film industry since the pandemic. We can’t help but wonder, however: how much of the success of The Equalizer 3 is due to the name “Denzel Washington” on the poster.
We took a look at Washington’s filmography to see if the leading man has a fan base more likely to love anything he’s headlining. The chart below doesn’t feature every movie Washington has been in (many movies don’t have a statistically significant affinity with Washington’s fans), but they feature most, if not all, of the films for which he is best known. The results can give us a sense of how passionate Washington’s fan base is, something Sony is likely keen to find out.
Movies Voted on by Washington Fans: 19
Washington’s reputation is largely built on his success as a leading man in dramas like Malcolm X, Remember the Titans, and Training Day, but he’s always had a flair for action movies. While some dramatic actors like Liam Neeson find their way to the action genre later on in their careers, Washington has been leading explosive thrillers since 1995’s Crimson Tide, going on to star in shoot-em-ups like Man on Fire, Deja Vu, The Book of Eli, and Safe House. Plenty of movies from both categories are represented here, but just as notable are the movies that Washington fans haven’t voted on in statistically significant numbers: missing are two movies that earned him best actor Oscar nominations Fences and Flight, notable action movies like 2 Guns and The Siege, and his directorial debut Antwone Fisher.
Average Movie’s Affinity Score: 212
Devotees of Denzel are reserved in their enthusiasm — a score of 212 indicates that, while they’re more likely than the average viewer to love a movie that Denzel is in, the simple fact that his name is on the marquee is no guarantee they’ll walk away from the theater happy. Other stars like But they’re generally positive about 78% of the movies they tend to have opinions on, a strong indication that they’ll give a movie a chance if he’s got a lead part in it. Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio have average Affinity Scores of 250 or higher with their own movies, indicating their respective fans are around 3X more likely to love anything they star in. Still, the average score for a Washington movie among his fans is higher than that of a Brad Pitt or even Tom Hanks movie, so 212 is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Time Span: 1987-2016 (27 years)
The very earliest and most recent movies from Washington’s filmography didn’t register Affinity Scores with his fans, leaving him a 27 year range that’s considerably shorter than the 42 years that sit between The Equalizer 3 and his first movie, 1981’s Carbon Copy. Washington’s timeline appropriately begins with his breakout role in Glory, for which he won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1990. Fans of Washington’s are 4X more likely than the average voter to love Glory, an affinity that only one Denzel Washington movie could match…
Fan Favorite: Training Day (393)
The only movie more likely to win over Wasington’s supporters than Glory is Training Day, the instant classic that earned the actor an Academy Award in 2001. Before that, Washington was a best actor nominee for biopics Malcolm X and Hurricane — Washington fans are 3X more likely to love the Spike Lee-directed biography about Civil Rights leader Malcolm X, but they’re no more likely to enjoy the 1999 historical drama about a boxer wrongfully convicted of murder in 1966 than the average Ranker voter.
Fan No-so-Favorite: The Hurricane (31)
It would seem that Washington fans are very picky about the actor’s biopics. They’re similarly fickle about his action movies, as films like The Book of Eli and Man on Fire get Affinity Scores upwards of 300 with this audience while Deja Vu and The Equalizer score below 200. The Equalizer was such a hit with movie audiences that it inspired a sequel movie and a spinoff TV show starring Queen Latifah, yet Denzel’s biggest fans are tepid on it. The results suggest that Denzel’s audience is distinct from that of the larger moviegoing public, and that a movie that makes a ton of money at the box office won’t necessarily earn the respect of the actor’s biggest fans. It seems like The Equalizer 3’s success can be largely put down to the strength of the franchise itself — though judging from the original film’s 286 score, it got a lot of help from Washington’s star power.