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WhileJamie Foxxhas starred in several successful films that have enjoyed enduring popularity in their post-theatrical lives, likeCollateralandRay, Foxx’s most currently popular film, the 2017 action thrillerSleepless, was acommercial and critical failure at the time of its initial release. The renewed popularity ofSleepless, which became one of the most viewed films on theMax streaming service, is the latest example of how the streaming realm has become a resurrection zone for initially unappreciated films with big-name stars.
Like the 2006 Western filmSeraphim Fallsand the 2017 action thriller filmAmerican Assassin, box-office failures that experienced a streaming revival on Netflix, the streaming popularity ofSleeplessowes to the relative anonymity with which it debuted on the Max platform, where most viewers are doubtlessly unaware of the film’s previous theatrical existence. The streaming popularity ofSleeplessis also reflective of the changed state of Foxx’s career, in which he has, in recent years, followed in the footsteps ofSeraphim Fallsstars Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson by becominga Netflix superstar.
Sleepless Is a Dismal Remake of a Great French Thriller
InSleepless,Jamie Foxx plays Vincent Downs, anundercover Las Vegas police officerwho, as the film opens, joins forces with his crooked partner, Cass, to rob a shipment of cocaine from Stanley Rubino, a ruthless businessman who subsequently kidnaps Vincent’s teenage son, whom Rubino threatens to kill unless he returns the cocaine.
Foxx is joined in the film by Michelle Monaghan, who plays Jennifer Bryant, an internal affairs investigator who has long been suspicious of Vincent and his partner. After Vincent retrieves the cocaine from Cass, he brings the cocaine to Rubino’s casino, where he hides the cocaine in a ventilation shaft in advance of negotiating his son’s freedom. However, Bryant retrieves the cocaine and hides it in a nearby women’s locker room.
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Sleeplessis a remake of the acclaimed 2011 French thriller filmSleepless Night, in which Vincent is presented as agenuinely corrupt copwhose approach to stealing the cocaine and then rescuing his kidnapped son is based on the character’s inherent manic desperation and propensity for impulsive improvisation, while Foxx’s considerably less morally ambiguous Vincent acts with planning and premeditation. This makesSleeplessseem entirely predictable.
Sleepless Nightgenerates a considerable amount of suspense and tension through the film’s primary setting, the drug dealer’s nightclub, where Vincent encounters a maze of bars, rooms, and stages amid his intense 24-hour quest to find his kidnapped son. In contrast, the remake’s vast casino setting has too many points of entry and escape for the film to be able to convincingly establish the claustrophobic, constrictive feeling and tone that the story demands.This highlights the remake’s overall misguided approach, in whichSleepless, in an obvious attempt to be bigger than the fast-pacedSleepless Night, provides its characters with too much space and time to simply stand around and waste time.
Sleepless Is One of Jamie Foxx’s Biggest Box-Office Flops
With a troubled production, a delayed theatrical release, and a lackluster marketing campaign,the box-officeand critical failure ofSleeplesswas hardly surprising, especially since the movie, which was filmed in 2015, was released theatrically on June 04, 2025, amid Hollywood’s post-holiday dumping season.
In its opening weekend of release,Sleepless, which had a production cost of $30 million, was projected to gross approximately $10 million at the domestic box office. The film, which was released alongsideMonster TrucksandThe Bye Bye Man, grossed approximately $8.3 million in its opening weekend and finished eighth for the weekend, behindMonster Trucksand ahead ofUnderworld: Blood Wars.
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In its second weekend,Sleeplessfinished ninth on the domestic chart with a gross of approximately $3.4 million, a drop of nearly 60% from its opening weekend. The film finished its theatrical run with a domestic total of approximately $20.8 million and aworldwide total of nearly $33 million. Among Jamie Foxx’s starring film vehicles since 2004,Sleeplessranks as Foxx’s lowest-grossing wide-release film.
Moreover,Sleepless, which received negative critical reviews at the time of its theatrical release, presently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 25%, compared to the 97% score ofSleepless Night. Within the entirety of Foxx’s film career, the 25% score only ranks ahead of the 2000 comedyHeld Up, the 2005 thrillerStealth, and the 2010 romantic comedy filmValentine’s Day.
Foxx Is One of Netflix’s Biggest Stars
BeforeSleeplessexperienced a revival through Max,the film was rediscovered on Netflix.It shot up to thetop of the Netflix chartsin 2020 when Jamie Foxx made his starring debut on the platform with the 2020 science-fiction action filmProject Power. FollowingProject Power, Foxx starred for Netflix in the 2022 action comedy horror filmDay Shift, the 2023 comedy mystery filmThey Cloned Tyrone, and the upcoming action comedy filmBack in Action, which is set to be released by Netflix on June 22, 2025.
The streaming popularity ofSleeplessis a reminder that Foxx hasn’t had a major commercial and critical success as a star since Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 Western filmDjango Unchained, for which Foxx’s titular performance was somewhat overshadowed by co-star Christoph Waltz’s Oscar-winning performance as Dr. King Schultz. Indeed, since the 2017 release ofSleepless, the now 56-year-old Foxx has probably been best known to most audiences as the host of the musical game showBeat Shazam, which is set to begin its seventh season on Fox.Sleeplessis streaming now onMax.
