Dracula, the 2025 romantic fantasy film directed by Luc Besson, is finally gaining the recognition it deserved. After a lukewarm theatrical release last year, the production has found new life with its release on digital rental and purchase (PVOD) platforms in early 2026. Starring Caleb Landry Jones in the role of the famous vampire and Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as a Van Helsing-like priest, the feature film quickly climbed the charts, reaching 9th place in Amazon’s Top 10 global movies on January 11th, an impressive feat for a project that almost went unnoticed. In this way, the film managed to surpass even recent successes like the musical Wicked, although it still trails behind titles like Predator: Badlands and the sequel Wicked: For Good.
The film’s rise on digital platforms serves as a noteworthy turnaround. This is because, with a robust budget of approximately 45 million euros (about R$ 300 million), the production earned only $28 million worldwide in theaters. The reason for this disappointing performance is directly linked to its theatrical release strategy, which was irregular and staggered across different countries, making it difficult to generate buzz. Therefore, the short window between its European screening in 2025 and its arrival in North American and Canadian theaters only in February 2026 meant that audiences could, unusually, watch it at home first.
A visual and thematic reinterpretation of the classic
Instead of focusing on the traditional horror elements of Bram Stoker’s work, Besson chose to explore the romantic essence of the story. With the provisional title Dracula: A Love Tale, the director of The Fifth Element brought a French gothic aesthetic and fantastical imagery, presenting the Count as a more sympathetic and tragic figure. This unique approach divided critics but won over a significant portion of the audience. With a score of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and reviews highlighting Landry Jones’s “haunting” performance and Danny Elfman’s “lush” soundtrack, the consensus is that the film is an emotionally charged retelling, even with an inconsistent tone.
Meanwhile, Christoph Waltz, who also shone in another prestigious horror production in 2025 – Guillermo del Toro’s acclaimed Frankenstein for Netflix – delivers another remarkable performance. The digital success of Besson’s Dracula, therefore, not only improves its financial prospects ahead of its US theatrical release but also proves that sometimes, a second chance in the digital environment can rescue a work from the shadows. Besson’s version of the vampire legend is already available for purchase or rental on digital stores like Amazon Prime Video.
