This 1990s Sigourney Weaver Thriller Just Exploded on Streaming
Streaming has made room for all kinds of unexpected comebacks, and now it's Sigourney Weaver's turn. Her 1995 thriller Copycat just shot into Netflix's global Top 10 — nearly 30 years after it first hit theaters.
On June 20, the film ranked #7 on Netflix, ahead of The Valet, Our Times, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. According to FlixPatrol, it pulled in 244 points that day alone, and has racked up 385 points this month so far — not bad for a movie that hadn't trended in decades.
Copycat stars Sigourney Weaver as a reclusive psychologist and Holly Hunter as a detective teaming up to catch a serial killer. It came out in 1995 to decent reviews and pulled in $80 million worldwide on a $27 million budget — modest success by '90s standards, but nothing earth-shattering at the time. Where it really found an audience was at the video store. It was one of the most-rented movies of that year, and it looks like that home-viewing magic still holds up.
Today, it's got a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, and most critics back then were pretty into it — including Roger Ebert, who gave it three and a half stars and stacked it up next to Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs. He wrote:
"Evil has always been a source of fascination in the movies... Movies like these are a safe way to meet our fears vicariously, and to exorcise them."
In other words, Copycat is dark, tense, and somehow still just what people want on a weeknight.
Its sudden popularity also mirrors what happened with The Accountant 2, which did okay at the box office but blew up when it hit Prime Video — and gave the original Accountant a boost too. That home-thriller comfort watch energy is still going strong.
So if you're in the mood for a sharp ‘90s serial killer flick with two powerhouse leads and some solid suspense, Copycat is waiting for you on Netflix — again.