The Mummy Is Still Dominating Streaming Charts 20 Years Later

It’s been over twenty years since The Mummy first crashed into cinemas, yet here we are—Brendan Fraser, sunburnt and shouting at sand, is still pulling in a crowd. The cult ‘99 action-horror is currently enjoying a proper renaissance on streaming. Specifically, it’s just elbowed its way into Peacock’s Top 10 films in the US. And before you ask—yes, that’s above stuff like The Marsh King’s Daughter and Bridesmaids.

So, why does The Mummy keep rising from the box office tomb every few years? Let’s break it down.

Dead Priests, Desert Shenanigans, and a Surprisingly Enduring Cast

The Mummy premiered back in May 1999, written and directed by Stephen Sommers, smack in the era when people still thought Tom Cruise doing a run in khakis was the height of action. What set it apart? You’ve got that winning mix of swashbuckling, actual horror bits, and just enough proper silliness to keep things fun, not grim.

Here’s the setup, for anyone who managed to dodge every ITV Saturday movie slot since the millennium:

• Rachel Weisz plays Evelyn Carnahan—a well-meaning, slightly clumsy librarian with a thing for ancient history and getting in over her head.
• Brendan Fraser is Rick O’Connell—the sort of rogueish adventurer every 90s blockbuster needed, full of that 'I forgot to shave, let’s shoot something' energy.
• John Hannah tags along as comic relief (Evelyn’s brother, Jonathan), generally making things worse.
• Arnold Vosloo is Imhotep, the titular mummy—centuries-old, utterly cursed, and understandably cranky at being woken up for the 20th bloody time.

Set in 1920s Egypt, the story follows this gang as they traipse into the ruins of Hamunaptra and (naturally) unleash an ancient evil, cueing up plagues, scarabs crawling under skin (still not over that), and a fair bit of camel-based slapstick.

Streaming, Ratings, and Why People Still Care

Peacock recently placed The Mummy at #8 in its US movie charts, according to FlixPatrol. Pretty respectable for a film older than many people’s first MacBook. Critics weren’t always bowled over—Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting at 64% from 107 reviews. Audiences, on the other hand, are far kinder, giving it a healthy 75%.

"The Mummy is cheerful, good-natured and entertaining, and its cast did engagingly silly things like ride camels through the desert."
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

If you ask me, it’s obvious why. There’s zero cynicism in this film—everyone’s up for a lark, there’s genuine spectacle, the effects just about hold up, and you don’t need a PhD in Egyptian curses to follow the plot. It’s just a cracking time at the movies. And that, apparently, is still more than enough to shift the streaming algorithm gods, all these years later.