Chris Pratt’s Passengers Is Back in Streaming Top 10 — A Decade Later

Nearly a decade after it first landed in theaters, Passengers — the $100 million science fiction spectacle starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence — is finding a whole new audience on streaming. The 2016 Sony Pictures film, which follows two passengers who wake up 90 years too early aboard an interstellar spacecraft, has been drawing consistent viewership on streaming platforms including Hulu and HBO Max as of early 2026.

It’s a quiet kind of second life that big-budget sci-fi films sometimes earn long after their theatrical runs fade from memory. And in the case of Passengers, that resurgence says something interesting about how audiences are now consuming — and reconsidering — films that were once divisive.

Whether you saw it in theaters back in 2016 or you’re discovering it for the first time through your streaming queue, there’s clearly something about this film that keeps pulling people back in.

What Passengers Is Actually About — and Why It Still Sparks Debate

Passengers is set aboard the Avalon, a luxury spacecraft carrying more than 5,000 colonists in hibernation pods on a 120-year journey to a distant planet called Homestead II. When a malfunction causes two passengers — mechanic Jim Preston (Pratt) and journalist Aurora Lane (Lawrence) — to wake up far too early, they find themselves alone on the ship with no way to go back to sleep.

What unfolds is part romance, part survival thriller, part moral reckoning. The film cost a reported $110 million to produce and was directed by Morten Tyldum, the Norwegian filmmaker best known for The Imitation Game. It earned around $303 million at the worldwide box office — a respectable number, but not the blockbuster smash Sony had hoped for given its star power.

Critically, the film landed somewhere in the middle. Audiences were split — not just on the quality of the storytelling, but on a specific plot point that many viewers found deeply uncomfortable. That moral complexity, arguably, is part of what keeps the conversation going years later.

The Numbers Behind the Film’s Streaming Revival

The fact that Passengers is trending on streaming platforms in March 2026 — nearly ten years after its December 2016 release — reflects a broader pattern in how catalog titles perform in the streaming era. Films with strong visual appeal, recognizable stars, and unresolved cultural debates tend to resurface repeatedly.

The film’s availability across two major streaming services simultaneously gives it unusual reach. Viewers who might not seek it out on one platform may stumble across it on another — and in the recommendation-driven world of streaming, that kind of dual presence matters.

Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, and the Star Power That Still Sells

Part of what makes Passengers an enduring streaming draw is simply the names attached to it. In 2016, Chris Pratt was riding the enormous wave of Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World. Jennifer Lawrence was one of the most bankable stars on the planet, fresh off the Hunger Games franchise and back-to-back Oscar nominations.

That combination — two of Hollywood’s biggest names sharing the screen in a visually stunning space setting — was always going to have a long shelf life. Even viewers who have no particular memory of the film’s original release are drawn in by the cast alone when they see it surface in their recommendations.

Pratt has remained a major presence in Hollywood since, anchoring the Guardians trilogy through its conclusion and continuing to appear in high-profile projects. Lawrence, after a period of stepping back from blockbuster fare, has also remained a recognizable name. Their combined appeal continues to serve the film well in the streaming environment.

Why Morally Complex Sci-Fi Keeps Finding New Audiences

There’s a reason films like Passengers don’t simply disappear after their theatrical run ends. Science fiction that wrestles with ethical questions — rather than delivering clean, comfortable answers — tends to generate conversation. And conversation drives streaming traffic.

The central dilemma of Passengers is one that viewers continue to argue about. The film doesn’t fully let its protagonist off the hook, but it also doesn’t condemn him outright. That ambiguity frustrated some critics in 2016. A decade later, it’s exactly the kind of nuance that keeps people watching, rewatching, and debating in comment sections and on social media.

For a certain kind of viewer — someone who wants their sci-fi to ask hard questions alongside the spectacle — Passengers delivers something that pure action films don’t. The visuals hold up. The performances are strong. And the moral weight of the story hasn’t gotten any lighter with time.

What This Streaming Moment Means for the Film’s Legacy

A theatrical disappointment can become a streaming success story. It’s happened before, and Passengers appears to be following that trajectory. Films that were perhaps ahead of their moment, or that arrived with expectations too high to meet, often find the audience they were always meant to reach once the pressure of opening weekend is long gone.

The fact that the film is generating renewed attention in March 2026 — nearly a full decade after release — suggests its place in the sci-fi conversation isn’t finished. If anything, it may be just getting started for a new generation of viewers discovering it for the first time on their couch rather than in a cinema.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I watch Passengers right now?
As of March 2026, Passengers is available for streaming on both Hulu and HBO Max.

How much did Passengers cost to make?
The film carried a reported production budget of approximately $100 to $110 million.

Who directed Passengers?
The film was directed by Morten Tyldum, the Norwegian director also known for The Imitation Game.

Did Passengers make money at the box office?
The film earned approximately $303 million worldwide, which was considered underwhelming relative to its budget and the star power involved.

Why is Passengers trending on streaming in 2026?
The film has been drawing renewed viewership on Hulu and HBO Max nearly ten years after its 2016 theatrical release, reflecting the kind of second-life catalog titles often find on streaming platforms.

Is Passengers worth watching if I missed it in theaters?
That depends on your tolerance for morally complex storytelling — the film features strong visuals and performances from Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, but its central ethical dilemma remains genuinely divisive among viewers.