David Fincher’s $327M Killer Thriller Is 1 of the World’s Most-Streamed Movies

What’s in the box?! What’s in the box??!! Anyone who has had the pleasure of being terrified to their very core by Se7en (or Seven, to the uninitiated) knows exactly what that question means, because it still haunts us all to this very day. It’s been 21 years since Se7en changed everything about how most people viewed serial killers, and it’s proven itself timeless — dominating streaming in an entirely different century.

The year was 1995, and future Hollywood icons Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and Morgan Freeman took the lead in a thriller-horror that also starred Kevin Spacey, pre-disgrace, but no one truly anticipated the film would become legendary.

It did though, and with spectacular acting, a gripping story and unforgiving visuals — also blowing the doors off the box office with nearly $350 million against a $30 million production budget — Se7en was crowned as one of the best ever in its genre, and now HBO Max subscribers are revisiting its greatness this spooky season.

Se7en Takes Over HBO Max Streaming Two Decades Later

Directed by David Fincher (Alien 3, Fight Club, Zodiac) and led by the aforementioned heavyweights on screen, Se7en has re-emerged in the Top-10 Most Watched Movies list on HBO Max in October (No. 8 and climbing), and to say it’s worthy of that and more would be a massive understatement.

Per the official logline for Se7en: “Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the seven deadly sins in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer’s mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.”

In addition to the financial success of Se7en, Fincher also enjoyed acclaim from critics and audiences alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics awarded it a Certified Fresh rating of 84 percent while audiences heaped praise upon it to the tune of a 95 percent score, nearly perfect, and Se7en earned a basket of nominations and awards, to boot.

In hindsight, that makes it wild to consider who actually passed on the project before it settled into the hands of Pitt and Freeman.

Denzel Washington, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman All Passed on Se7en

Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as Detectives Mills and Somerset get a huge case in Se7en.

You read that correctly: Denzel Washington, Al Pacino and the late Gene Hackman passed on Se7en.

That’s something Fincher admitted recently when describing the process that preceded his decision to direct the film, the studio working to get big-name talent as headliners: “Denzel’s manager ended up being a producer on Se7en – but I think it was kind of a bait and switch,” he told The Independent. “It was like, ‘If I produce the film, you can get Denzel.’ I was told that Denzel had read the script, didn’t like it, and that the script was then rewritten, like, 10 or 11 times to suit him.

He continued: “It was rewritten ad nauseam, ad infinitum, in an attempt to get Denzel to say yes. But by the time I got involved, Denzel had long passed. Almost everybody that I sent it to originally also passed. I sent it to Ned Beatty to play John Doe, and he wouldn’t even consider it. Almost everyone thought that the film was far too ghoulish to deal with.”

That tells you all you need to know about Se7en, if you haven’t already. And as fans become gluttonous for more of it on HBO Max, in the end, everything worked out exactly as it needed to … though not for … well, you know, because it’s in the box.