Mother’s Day Upset: Jennifer Aniston’s 8% Rotten Tomatoes Movie Beats Tom Cruise’s $1.5B Sequel

Here’s one of those weird things that only makes sense in the world of streaming: a critically roasted Jennifer Aniston movie from nearly a decade ago just shot to the top of Paramount+ for Mother’s Day. No, not a “so-bad-it’s-good” cult hit—Mother’s Day, that actual ensemble comedy you probably forgot existed. And apparently, you weren’t the only one.

Mother's Day: The Return (to Streaming Charts, That Is)

So, what happened? According to FlixPatrol, on May 10 (aka this year’s Mother’s Day in the US), Mother’s Day jumped to #1 most-watched movie on Paramount+. The former chart champions—Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick (easily the biggest hit in this list by a mile) and the recent horror flick Primate—were bumped down to #2 and #3. You also had some odd company on the platform’s Top 10, including The Mechanic (Statham blowing things up at #4), Gasoline Alley (Bruce Willis at #5), and, for the kids (or maybe nostalgic 30-somethings?), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie at #6.

Quick rundown of the rest: Roofman (Channing Tatum), Shooter (Mark Wahlberg), and a couple more action movies filled out the list. But in a true holiday-style upset, a movie with an 8% Rotten Tomatoes score outperformed all of them.

Reminder: This Movie Bombed, Critically Speaking

Mother’s Day was Garry Marshall’s last film—he’s the guy behind Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries, not to mention the guy who somehow managed to convince Julia Roberts into two different ensemble holiday movies. He co-wrote the script with Tom Hines, Lily Hollander, and Matt Walker, and called up a giant cast: Jennifer Aniston, Timothy Olyphant, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts (again), Jason Sudeikis, Britt Robertson, and Margo Martindale among them.

The basic premise: scattered families and relationship drama converge around—you guessed it—Mother’s Day. The main character, Sandy (Aniston), is a divorced mom handling the emotional aftershocks when her ex remarries a younger woman.

Open Road Films distributed it, and it opened in theaters on April 29, 2016. The response? Not great, unless you like movie critics feasting on easy targets. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s sporting a brutal 8% from over 150 reviews. (The audience score, by the way, climbs to a “hey, at least it’s not toxic” 44%.) Metacritic, never one to spare feelings, scores it an 18 from critics and a user score of 2.8 out of 10. Ouch.

To Marshall and the cast’s credit, people did show up—even if only once. The film made about $48.7 million worldwide against a $25 million budget, so technically, it didn’t lose anybody’s shirt.

So Why Is This Thing #1 Now?

Here’s where it gets a little funny: this is basically the only moment of relevance the movie gets every year—and streaming algorithms, if nothing else, love a good excuse. When a movie’s built entirely around a holiday, you can bet it’ll show up on the right day, whether people are searching ironically or genuinely looking for something themed to watch with their mom.

Still, you’ve got to hand it to Mother’s Day for bagging that #1 slot, especially against heavyweights like Cruise’s fighter jets and a pack of action thrillers. A holiday is a powerful thing.

"Mother’s Day" got panned—with only 8% of critics finding anything to like—but that did not stop it from being the most-watched movie on U.S. Paramount+ when actual Mother’s Day hit. Can’t argue with timing.